Pine tangerine

Pine tangerine
	Pine tangar ( Piranga ludoviciana ), ; male in breeding dress
Systematics
Order :	Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination :	Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily :	Passeroidea
Family :	Cardinals (Cardinalidae)
Genre :	Piranga
Type :	Pine tangerine
Scientific name
	Piranga ludoviciana
	( Wilson , 1811)

Sound recording

The pine tangar ( Piranga ludoviciana ) is a small bird from the family of cardinals (Cardinalidae). The bird was discovered by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during the Lewis and Clark Expedition in western Louisiana . That is why he was named "Louisianatangare" at the beginning of Alexander Wilson .

features

The head plumage is bright red in the male in the breeding dress. The plumage is yellow on the neck, on the chest and on the underside. There are yellow and white wing rods on the gray-black to black wing-covers. The dorsal side, except for the yellow rear area, and the tail feathers are also black-gray to black. In the female, the head plumage is olive-green to grayish and the wing-coverts and tail feathers have a dull black-gray color. Like the head plumage, the front back area is olive green to grayish. In winter, the male's head area turns yellow.

The red pigment on the face of the pine tangerine is rhodoxanthin, a pigment that is rare in birds. It is not formed by the bird, as is the case with other tangerines, but ingested from food, presumably by insects.

Way of life and distribution

The nest is built in the lower regions of fir , pine or spruce . The clutch consists of three to five light blue to bluish green eggs.

They feed mainly on insects . Occasionally, fruits are also consumed. They usually track their prey in the upper regions of the trees

They usually breed in mixed forests in the mountains. The distribution area extends from the northwest in Canada over Northwest America. In winter they move to California, among other places, and prefer to live in eucalyptus forests .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b All about Birds at Cornell Lab of Ornithology (accessed February 2, 2010)

Web links

Commons : Pine tangar ( Piranga ludoviciana ) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Piranga ludoviciana in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 30 of 2009.
Videos, photos and sound recordings of Piranga ludoviciana in the Internet Bird Collection

[allaboutbirds-1] All about Birds at Cornell Lab of Ornithology (accessed February 2, 2010)