Flame-colored Tanager, Piranga bidentata

Flame-colored Tanager, Piranga bidentata bidentata, Female. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, April 2020. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Flame-colored Tanager, Piranga bidentata bidentata, Male. Photograph taken in Temascaltepec, Mexico, March 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos.

Background and Identification

The Flame-colored Tanager, Piranga bidentata bidentata, is one of four subspecies of Flame-colored Tanager, three of which are found Mexico. They are a member of the Cardinalidae Family of Cardinals and Allies, which has forty-nine members placed in fourteen genera, and one of nine global species of the Piranga Genus. They are also known as the Stripe-backed Tanager and in Mexico as piranga estriada.

Very little has been documented about their biology and behavioral patterns.

The Flame-colored Tanager is mid-sized in stature and sexually dimorphic, with the males being primarily orange or red in color, with dusky stripes on the back, and black wings that have prominent white bars and white tertial tips. The females are olive above, with dusky streaks, and yellow below, with a wing pattern that is similar to that of the male. They have a strong blackish bill that transitions to dark gray below, a dark reddish-brown iris, and blackish legs.

Habitat and Geographical Range

They are typically found in forested habitats including human evergreen forests, pine-oak forests, and forest edges at elevations up to 2,800 m (9,200 feet) but move to lower elevations during the winter months. They are normally found as solitary individuals or in pairs that forage in the mid and upper levels of forest trees making them difficult to observe. They forage on a wide variety of seasonal berries, fruits, and insects.

The Flame-colored Tanager is found in Eastern Mexico in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas south to Guatemala and in Western Mexico in Sonora and Chihuahua south to Guerrero and east to Mexico City. The bidentata subspecies is the only subspecies found in western Mexico. The majority are year-round residents with a few making summer migrations northward.

Common Misidentifications

Conservation Status

From a conservation perspective, the Flame-colored Tanager is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely-distributed populations. They have adapted well to human developments.