Art Lander’s Outdoors: The Scarlet Tanager is a summer breeding bird with distinctive plumage

The Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) is a summer resident, observed throughout the state.

According to the Kentucky Breeding Bird Atlas, populations are highest in the eastern third of the state, but research suggests that populations are increasing westward.

Sacarlet Tanager breeding range (Graphic from Audubon Society, click for larger image)

A member of family Cardinalidae, the Scarlet Tanager was first described in the scientific literature in 1789 by German naturalist Johann Gmelin.

There are three subspecies.

Its breeding range is from the northeastern tip of North Dakota, east along the Canadian border to Maine, south down the Atlantic Coast to Virginia, west through parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, northern Arkansas and Oklahoma, then north through Missouri a...