Piranga

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.

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

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

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]

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
P. bidentataFlame-colored tanagerMexico, and throughout Central America to northern Panama
P. erythrocephalaRed-headed tanagerMexico
P. flavaHepatic tanagerSouthwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, and locally in southern California and Colorado) to northern Argentina.
P. leucopteraWhite-winged tanagerBelize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela
P. ludovicianaWestern tanagerSoutheastern 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. rubraSummer tanagerSouthern United States, extending as far north as Iowa. These birds migrate to Mexico, Central America and northern South America
P. rubricepsRed-hooded tanagerColombia, Ecuador, and Peru

References
  1. Vieillot, Louis Jean 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). Volume 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.
  2. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1970). Check-List of Birds of the World. Volume 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 301.
  3. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
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