Grosbeaks
Grosbeaks can be attracted to
your yard with food. Water
fountains, birdbaths
and landscaping will add to the attraction. Grosbeaks are a rather
secretive bird throughout the summer. Their food is quite varied.
Heavy seeds are easily cracked open with their huge beaks; although
sometimes they pose a problem in fruit orchards. Some grosbeaks also
consume harmful insects and are highly valuable to farmers.
Description
Evening Grosbeaks are stout short
tailed birds about 8 inches in length. Males are dull yellow with
a dark head and yellow stripe above the eye. The wings and tail are
black, and there is a large white patches on wings. The female is
mostly silver-gray with touches of yellow. The wings and tail are
black with white patches, not as pronounced as the male.
The male Blue Grosbeak is a radiant blue, with blackish wings and
chestnut wing bars. The female is brown with off-white wing bars.
Both have the dark thick conical bills that are typical to grosbeaks.
The Black-headed Grosbeak is a 6-1/2 to 7-3/4-inch with a large, conical
pinkish-white bill. The adult male Black-headed Grosbeak has a striking
deep orange breast, collar and under parts, black head and upper parts,
white under tail coverts, white wing bars and wing patches and white
spots on a black tail. The male in fall and winter is duller and browner.
The adult female has black and white crown stripes, off-white under
parts with streaking at the sides. Females have a buffer breast and
the streaking is confined to the sides. Immature Grosbeaks have plumages
that are similar to the adult female.
The male cardinal grosbeak is 8 1/4 inches tall and has a short bill
conical. Wings are 11 1/2 inches in length. Tail is long, straight,
and curved. The whole upper parts are of a deep red, except the head,
which is vermilion. The frontal part of the forehead, and the upper
frontal part of the neck are black. The under parts are vermilion.
The female has a crest like the male, which it resembles in the texture
of its plumage, but the tail is proportionally shorter. The general
color of the upper parts is a dull grayish-brown, faintly tinged with
olive; the longer crest-feathers are streaked with dull red, the wings,
coverts, and outer edges of the quills, are of the same tint. The
edge of the wings and the lower coverts are pale vermilion, and the
inside edges of the quills are of the same tint. The parts surrounding
the base of the bill, which are black in the male, are blackish-gray,
and the lower parts in general are pale grayish-brown.
Feeding
They eat seeds, buds, insects, berries and fruit.
Preferred foods are pine and box elder seeds. You can attract grosbeaks
to bird
feeders with sunflower seeds. Large flocks can land on
your feeders and eat all the sunflower seeds you have. Some years
you may see these flocks at feeders, while in other years they stay
in the North and are not seen that winter.
Eggs
The female will incubate 2 to
5 smooth glossy eggs. The male shares the incubation of the eggs with
the female. The eggs are light blue or greenish blue. They are spotted
with blotches of purplish to olive brown or purplish-gray, mostly
at the large end. The young are fed by both parents and can leave
the nest in around 2 weeks.
Habitat
Grosbeaks can be found all year
round in North America and southern Canada. They vary form the Rocky
Mountain region south to northern Mexico. They winter in Mexico and
most of the U.S. grosbeaks like mixed forests. They prefer conifer
and spruce forests. They also like fruit and berry trees or shrubs
and maples. In winter they can be established in open areas with trees
and shrubs.
Voice
Rich warble similar to that of
a robin but softer, sweeter, and faster. Call note an emphatic, sharp
tick, slightly metallic in tone.
