The Story
I photographed this juvenile Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) at Beraca Charco Indio, near San José del Guaviare, Guaviare, Colombia, in February 2021. Adult males are rose red, and females are orangish below and olive above. It breeds in the United States and spends the winter in Mexico, Central America and northern South America. It often forages out of sight high in trees, sometimes flying out to catch insects, and its song is similar to an American Robin’s. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/20 sec, f/16, ISO 1600, +2 EV. Beraca Charco Indio is a 140-hectare agritourism farm in the Serranía de La Lindosa, about 6 kilometers from San José del Guaviare, with a private river pool called the Charco Indio.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) belongs to the family Cardinalidae (Cardinals and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List