Evening Grosbeak

 The evening grosbeak is a colorful member of the finch family that is found in North America. They breed in the cooler climates of Canada and the Rocky Mountains and winter through out much of the United States. They used to be considered more of a western species but in the mid 1800's they began to expand their territory eastward until by the 1920's they were found from coast to coast.

 During the winter evening grosbeaks are a frequent visitor to feeders where their large beak helps them to crack open seeds that smaller birds can not handle. Their winter diet consist mainly of seeds. However during the summer they turn to insects for the major part of their diet. They are particularly fond of caterpillars and spruce budworm larvae which they glean from trees.

Grosbeak

The term grosbeak does not refer to any specific family or genus of birds. Instead grosbeak is a term that refers to a physical feature that a number of different seed eating birds share. Although all of these birds are passerines they all belong to a different genus. For instance the pine grosebeak, pictured above, is a member of the genus Pinicola.
The evening grosbeak, pictured above, is in the same family as the pine grosbeak, Fringillidae, but is a member of the genus Coccothraustes. The genus Coccothraustes also includes the hawk finch and the hooded grosbeak. Both the pine grosbeak and evening grosbeak are closely related to finches.
The rose-breasted grosbeak, the one pictured above is an immature, is the most common grosbeak found in my area. The rose-breasted grosbeak is a member of the Cardinalidae family and is in the genus Pheucticus, which also includes the yellow, golden-bellied, black-thighed, and black-headed grosbeaks.
The blue grosbeak is also a member of the Cardinalidae family but they are found in the genus passerina. The genus passerina also includes the North American bunting species including the indigo and painted buntings. Since both the rose-breasted and blue grosbeaks are members of the Cardinalidae family they are both also related to cardinals. There are many other types of grosbeaks in a variety of different genus' found around the world but unfortunately these are the only types that I have ever found here in Minnesota.

Wordless Wednesday: Evening Grosbeak

Sax Zim Winter Birding Fest Grosbeak

One of the highlights of the Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival was the feeding station on Blue Spruce Road. This feeder station, which was set up and maintained by local meadowlands resident Derek Morse, had at least 8 different feeders and always had a lot of birds around to photograph. The best day that I had here was on Friday the day that I arrived. It was sunny and cold that day and there were not many other people around.
There were a lot of pine grosbeak around that morning.
Like many types of birds grosbeaks are sexually dimorphic. According to Wikipedia the definition for sexual dimorphism is, "the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species".
In pine grosbeaks there is an obvious color difference. The female, pictured at the top, is mostly drab gray with a bit of mustard color on the head and upper body.

The male is much more colorful with the reddish pink head, chest and back as well as darker more distinct black and white striping on the wings.
One of the reasons for the color difference may be to prevent aggression towards females by males defending territory. Many passerines are highly territorial especially during mating and nesting season. Since females typically appear closer in color to juveniles they will not usually provoke aggression.
There were also some evening grosbeak that visited the feeding station.
The differences in color between male and female evening grosbeak is not as obvious as it is with pine grosbeak but it is still apparent. Both male and female are primarily yellow with a darker head and wings but the female, pictured above is more of a dull yellow.
The male is much more vibrant yellow which is contrasted by a darker head. Males also tend to have more white on the secondary feathers of the wing and a bright yellow supercilium, or eye brow.