Piranga

Piranga
Scarlet tanager
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Cardinalidae
Genus:	Piranga Vieillot, 1808
Type species
Fringilla rubra Linnaeus, 1758
Species
See species list

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

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 Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1808 with the summer tanager (Piranga rubra) as the type species.^[1][2] The genus name Piranga is from the Tupi Tijepiranga, the name for an unknown small bird.^[3]

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	P. bidentata	Flame-colored tanager	Mexico, and throughout Central America to northern Panama
	P. erythrocephala	Red-headed tanager	Mexico
	P. flava	Hepatic tanager	Southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, and locally in southern California and Colorado) to northern Argentina
	P. leucoptera	White-winged tanager	Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela
	P. ludoviciana	Western tanager	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
	P. olivacea	Scarlet tanager	Eastern United States. Migrate to Central and northern South America
	P. roseogularis	Rose-throated tanager	Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico
	P. rubra	Summer tanager	Southern United States, extending as far north as Iowa. These birds migrate to Mexico, Central America and northern South America
	P. rubriceps	Red-hooded tanager	Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piranga (bird) and Cardinalidae.