Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Some outdoor enthusiasts believe that no thrush can hold a candle to the rich singing of the rose-breasted grosbeak, and that the latter is perhaps the handsomest bird in the woods. 

The male has a blackhead, a massive ivory-colored bill (“grosbeak” means “big beak”), white patches on black wings that flash like semaphore signals when the bird flies, and a triangular bright red patch on the white breast. 

(The patch varies somewhat in size and shape from one individual to the next.) The female looks like a gargantuan brown sparrow. The song, given by both sexes, is robin-like but quicker, mellower, and full of life. Adults are about eight inches long. Rose-breasted grosbeaks breed from Nova Scotia to western Canada and south in the Appalachians to Georgia.

The species is found statewide in Pennsylvania: scarce in the developed and agricultural southeast, abundant across the northern tier. Grosbeaks favor second-growth deciduous or mixed woods and can also be found in old orchards, parklands and suburban plantings. They eat insects (about half the diet in summer), seeds (easily crushed by that formidable bill), tree buds and flowers and fruits. 

Males arrive on the breeding grounds in April and May, about a week ahead of the females. Males sing to proclaim a two- to three-acre breeding territory and may attack other males who intrude. When courting a female, the male takes a low perch or lands on the ground, then droops his wings and quivers them, spreads and lowers his tail, and slowly rotates his body from side to side while singing.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks often nest in thickets along the edges of roads, streams or swamps. The nest, built mostly by the female, is loose, bulky and made almost entirely of twigs. It is usually 10 to 15 feet above the ground in a small tree or shrub. Since both members of the pair do much calling (a short, metallic chink is often given) and singing in the vicinity, the nest is fairly easy to find. The three to five eggs (typically four) are pale greenish-blue, blotched with browns and purples. Both parents share in incubating them, and the eggs hatch after about two weeks.

Both parents feed the young, which leave the nest 9 to 12 days after hatching. Should a female start a second brood, she may leave the young while they’re still in the nestling phase; the male assumes care of the first offspring while the female starts building a second nest, often less than 30 feet away from the first. 

Adults molt in August, and the male’s new plumage includes brown and black streaks on the head, neck, and back. In September rose-breasted grosbeaks start the migratory trek southward to wintering grounds in Central and South America.

Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea) — Like the cardinal, this is a southern species that has expanded northward over the last century. In the 1980s blue grosbeaks were found nesting in southern Fulton, Lancaster, and Chester counties and along the border of Delaware and Philadelphia counties near the Tinicum National Environmental Center. Males are a deep dusky blue; females are brown and sparrow-like. 

Blue grosbeaks inhabit open areas with scattered trees, fencerows, roadside thickets, reverting fields, brush and forest edges. They often feed on the ground and eat many insects, as well as the seeds of weeds, grasses and other plants. Breeding males sing from treetops and utility wires. The female builds the nest, a compact open cup, three to 10 feet above the ground, in a shrub, tree or vine tangle. The usual brood is four. Cowbirds often parasitize this species. Blue grosbeaks winter mainly in Mexico and Central America.

 Also Read: Lilac Breasted Roller, Most Attractive Bird / Indian Roller Bird  / Yellow Cardinal – One in Million Birds

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