The pine grosbeak is a large northern finch. They live mainly in the Boreal forests in Canada, Europe and Asia. During the winter when food is not as plentiful in their northern home they will migrate south. In North America they will come down into southern Canada and the northern United States. I took these pictures in the Sax Zim bog in northern Minnesota. Usually we only see small numbers of pine grosbeak during the winter but occasionally, during severe winters up north, we will see an eruption with a large number of birds in the northern part of the state.
Pine grosbeak are primarily vegetarians. About 99% of their diet is made up of fruit buds and seeds. During the winter they are often food around fruit trees that still have hanging fruit. Since a growing grosbeak needs more protein then an adult they usually feed their young insects, that they carry in a pouch in the bottom of their mouth, along with vegetation. They also drink water or during the winter eat snow to get their needed moisture.
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.
One of the best places to bird in Minnesota during the winter is the Sax Zim Bog Wildlife Management Area. The bog is located in northeastern Minnesota not far from Duluth.
The main attraction of the bog are the owls that come down from Canada during the winter. As food sources up north of the border decline, due to winter weather, owls head down to the bog in search of prey. The most common northern owl to see is the northern hawk owl, above, which is a diurnal owl, meaning that it is active during the day which makes it easier to find. Other northern owls that sometimes visit the bog include great gray owls and boreal owls.
Besides the owls there are some other colorful species that can be found in the bog during the winter. One of the most common is the pine grosbeak, pictured above. Male pine grosbeak are red and gray while the females are more of a mustard color. Evening grosbeaks and white-winged crossbills can also be found, though they are not as common as the pine grosbeak.
Northern finches can usually be found around feeders. The numbers of these birds that visit the bog changes each year depending on the amount of food available back in their summer range. Last year there was quite an irruption of northern finches with pine siskin, pictured above, and redpoll being spotted all the way down in Iowa. This year I spotted very few northern finches, only a few pine siskin and one redpoll on this trip.
There are always plenty of chickadees around. Even though they are very common it is important to keep your eyes on them because you never know when a boreal chickadee might show up. These are another resident of the boreal forests up in Canada who will sometimes come down to Minnesota looking for food, but these little guys are not looking for seed. They are insect eaters so they are looking mostly for protein. So for the past few years several local birders in the area have attached parts of deer carcasses to trees in different locations through out the bog. This is a good source of food for many birds, especially the boreal chickadees and it also gives birders a place to look for these special birds. Unfortunately this year a local resident complained that the deer carcasses were attracting wolves, despite evidence to the contrary, and the DNR took them all down. This looked like it was going to be the end of one of the best places to photograph birds in Minnesota during the winter until a compromise was reached. The deer would no longer be allowed on public land, however seed and suet were allowed. So feeders went up in many key locations and the birds continued to come in to eat.
I never did see any signs of wolves. There were no tracks around the feeding stations and the carcasses were never torn down. The closes thing to a wolf that I ever spotted in the bog was a red squirrel but I don't think that he was causing too much trouble.
Not all of the northern finches were down here in numbers this winter however, both evening and pine grosbeaks seemed to be missing in the great southern migration.
I did manage to find some pine grosbeaks up in the Sax Zim Bog area but I did not see any on my fist couple of trips up. It wasn't until the end of January that I began to see them and then only in small groups.
Pine grosbeaks live in the boreal forests of Canada, Alaska, and Eurasia where they feed on seeds, buds and fruit. During the winter they will migrate south if their is not enough available food.
During the winter, when food is sometimes scarce, they will find trees that still have fruit and stay near them until all of the fruit is gone. They often get their necessary water by eating snow during the winter time.
Pine grosebeaks are sexually dimorphic, meaning that there is a difference in appearance between the male and the female. The male is a brighter cranberry color, as in the first three pictures above, the female is more of an orange-gold color, as in the last two pics. It is difficult to identify first year males from females, since they are the same color until their second year when they begin to molt in their cranberry colored feathers
When I arrived it was pretty quiet. This was quite different from the time that I spent here on the Friday of the Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival. On that occasion there were many birds at the feeder station. When I arrived on March first all that I saw where redpolls, which I had already taken some nice shots of off on Owl Ave, and black-capped chickadees.
Every once and a while a woodpecker would drop in to check out the suet feeders, but they were nothing unique. Just hairy and downy woodpeckers like I see all the time around home.
Finally after a little while a group of pine grosbeaks came in to check out the feeders.
The females were the first to arrive.
Followed shortly by several males.
They all stopped and perched on the evergreens surrounding the feeding station for several minutes to check out the situation.
Finally they determined that it was safe and flew over to the feeder station to indulge in the free feast.
I also did spot a boreal chickadee at this feeder but included those pictures in my boreal chickadee post.
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. 
Next I moved on to Two Harbors. On my trip here earlier in the week, I did not have as much time as I wanted to spend checking out the woods near the light house. So I did some exploring. The first thing of interest that I found was a flock of European starlings.
At first they where on the ground sifting through the grass but when I approached they took to the safety of the trees. I also saw quite a few black-capped chickadees here too.
The deer living around the lighthouse, and actually most of the ones that I saw in the area, where not very afraid of people. They have become habituated, which is not good. Many of these deer get hit by cars at dusk or dawn because they are not afraid to walk across roads, like they should be.
Finally I heard what I was listening for. Tap tap tap tap. I followed the noise and found the woodpecker that was making it, unfortunately it was a hairy and not a black-backed or three-toed.
What I saw was a small flock of pine grosbeak.
The tree, as I have since been informed, was prolly a mountain ash. Pine grosbeak are particularly fond of mountain ash berries.
I shot the grosbeak for a while then continued on through Stoney Point. I never did find either of the woodpeckers that I had hoped to find but I did have a lot of fun and got some pretty good images to share with all of my friends on the web.
