Piranga

This article is about the bird genus. For the Brazilian municipality, see Piranga, Minas Gerais.

Piranga is a genus of birds long placed in the tanager family, but now considered members of the family Cardinalidae. The genus name Piranga is from Tupi word tijepiranga, the name for an unknown small bird.

Piranga
Scarlet tanager
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Cardinalidae
Genus:	Piranga Vieillot, 1808
Type species
Muscicapa rubra[1] = Fringilla rubra Linnaeus, 1766
Species
See species list

Similar in shape and habits to the true tanagers, their coloration betrays their actual relationships. They are essentially red, orange, or yellow all over, except the tail and wings, and in some species also the back. Such extensive lipochrome coloration (except on the belly) is very rare in true tanagers, but is widespread among the Cardinalidae.

These songbirds are found high in tree canopies, and are not very gregarious in their breeding areas. Piranga species pick insects from leaves, or sometimes in flight. They also take some fruit. Several species are migratory, breeding in North America and wintering in the tropics.

Taxonomy and species list

The genus Piranga was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808 with the summer tanager (Piranga rubra) as the type species.^[2][3] The genus name Piranga is from the Tupi Tijepiranga, the name for an unknown small bird.^[4]

Genus Piranga – Vieillot, 1808 – eleven species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Flame-colored tanager Male Female	Piranga bidentata Swainson, 1827 Four subspecies P. b. bidentata P. b. flammea P. b. sanguinolenta P. b. citrea,	Mexico, and throughout Central America to northern Panama	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Red-headed tanager Male	Piranga erythrocephala (Swainson, 1827)	Mexico	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Hepatic tanager Male Female	Piranga hepatica (Swainson, 1827) Five subspecies P. h. hepatica Swainson, 1827 P. h. dextra Bangs, 1907 P. h. figlina Salvin & Godman, 1883 P. h. savannarum T.R. Howell, 1965 P. h. albifacies J.T. Zimmer, 1929	Southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, and locally in southern California and Colorado), Mexico & Central America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Tooth-billed tanager Male Female	Piranga lutea (Lesson, 1834) Six subspecies P. l. testacea P.L. Sclater & Salvin, 1868 P. l. faceta Bangs, 1898 P. l. haemalea Salvin & Godman, 1883 P. l. toddi Parkes, 1969 P. l. desidiosa Bangs & Noble, 1918 P. l. lutea (Lesson, 1834)	northwestern South America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Red tanager Male Female	Piranga flava (Vieillot, 1822) Four subspecies P. f. macconnelli C. Chubb, 1921 P. f. rosacea Todd, 1922 P. f. saira (von Spix, 1825) P. f. flava (Vieillot, 1822)	eastern South America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
White-winged tanager Male Female	Piranga leucoptera Trudeau, 1839 Four subspecies P. l. leucoptera P. l. latifasciata P. l. venezuelae P. l. ardens	Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Western tanager Male Female	Piranga ludoviciana (Wilson, 1811)	Southeastern Alaska south to northern Baja California, Mexico. Western tanagers extend east to western Texas and north through central New Mexico, central Colorado, extreme northwest Nebraska, and areas of western South Dakota to southern Northwest Territories, Canada	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Scarlet tanager Male Female	Piranga olivacea (Gmelin, 1789)	Eastern United States. Migrate to Central and northern South America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Rose-throated tanager Male	Piranga roseogularis (Cabot, 1846) Three subspecies P. r. roseogularis P. r. tincta P. r. cozumelae	Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Summer tanager Male Female	Piranga rubra (Linnaeus, 1758) Two subspecies P. r. cooperi Ridgway, 1869 P. r. rubra (Linnaeus, 1758)	Southern United States, extending as far north as Iowa. These birds migrate to Mexico, Central America and northern South America	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Red-hooded tanager	Piranga rubriceps (Gray, 1844)	Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

References

1. "Cardinalidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
2. Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1807). Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale : contenant un grand nombre d'espèces décrites ou figurées pour la première fois (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Chez Desray. p. iv. For a discussion of the publication date see: Dickinson, E.C.; Overstreet, L.K.; Dowsett, R.J.; Bruce, M.D. (2011). Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: a Directory to the literature and its reviewers. Northampton, UK: Aves Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-9568611-1-5.
3. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1970). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 301.
4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.