A breeding male Scarlet Tanager is impossible to miss. In a mature old-growth forest, at the top of the tallest tree, the bird’s brilliant red coloring with contrasting black wings broadcasts its location. A Scarlet Tanager is a memorable sight during spring migration.
Spotting a Scarlet Tanager can be elusive. They tend to perch high in the canopy, often obscured in the light green leaves of spring. Their arrival comes as a surprise and is always hard to predict.
Imagine my surprise, then, when a Scarlet Tanager was the first bird I spotted shortly after sunrise on the first of May. I had been chasing after the many Baltimore Orioles along the easternmost ridge of the park. I thought I saw one, but the scarlet glow of the tanager gave it away.
Scarlet Tanagers spend their winters in northern South America and make their way to the forests of the Northeast during spring migration. They prefer the old forests with a high perch, the very type of place I spotted it early in the morning of the first of May. Female Scarlet Tanagers are greenish-yellow in color. When the males molt and fall migration brings them back through the forest canopies, the males will assume these same colors. The bright red is for springtime attention.
I don’t know of any other migrating bird quite like it in intense coloration except for the hyper-blue Indigo Bunting. I haven’t seen one of those yet this spring, but others have spotted at least one in the park.
I had assumed my Scarlet Tanager luck ran for one day only, but on the following day, I checked the same tree anyway where I first saw it. No luck, of course. I walked over to the oak trees east of the Whaleback to resume watching an intense concentration of Baltimore Orioles. I saw the orioles again but also two more Scarlet Tanagers.
Cover: Scarlet Tanager in Inwood Hill Park. May 1, 2025. 6:42 a.m.
Walking the Ridge and Looking Up
This past week, I’ve often strolled the high path along the easternmost hill of Inwood Hill Park. The trail is accessible via the curving stone steps just inside the park near W. 207th Street. From the middle of the clearing at the north end, it’s possible to view birds in the top of the tallest trees. In addition to the Scarlet Tanager, I saw a Great Crested Flycatcher from here. This morning, from the viewpoint down below in the soccer fields near the Salt Marsh, I looked up and spotted an American Kestrel on top of the hill. Read more about this area of Inwood Hill Park in the post, A Black-throated Blue on the Old Green Hill (May 16, 2023).
Follow the trail to the south toward the leafy area east of the Whaleback (an outcropping that resembles a whale breaking the ocean surface). You’ll be high above Payson Avenue. The views toward the southeast provide many opportunities to observe migrating birds. See the customized Google map on this site.
May 2025 Sighting Page
Spring migration is intense during the month of May. Check the May 2025 Sightings page for updates. The feature image there is another picture of the Scarlet Tanager.
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