{"id":1697,"date":"2020-05-10T00:45:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T00:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2020-05-10T00:45:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T00:45:50","slug":"the-thick-beaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/?p=1697","title":{"rendered":"The Thick Beaks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of my favorite groups\nof birds in North America is the grosbeaks. These robust, colorful, and\nsometimes, very musical birds, can be found from the west coast to the east\ncoast, and from Canada to Mexico. Specific species may use a variety of\nhabitats during breeding and migration. Common members include Rose-breasted Grosbeak,\nEvening Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Black-headed Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak and two\nMexican species that rarely wander north into the southern U.S.-the Yellow Grosbeak\nand Crimson-collared Grosbeak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A male Rose-breasted Grosbeak pauses on a warm spring morning<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

GROSBEAKS get their name from the\nFrench grosbec<\/em>,\nfrom “gros<\/em>”\nmeaning thick<\/strong> and\n“bec<\/em>”\nmeaning beak.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beaks of these birds are adapted to\neating seeds, including those of trees such as elms, as well as buds and\nflowers. In addition, they also eat a variety of insects, including beetles,\ncaterpillars, grasshoppers and many others-spiders and snails are also a part\nof their diet. In the late summer and fall they may feed heavily on berries and\nsmall fruits. Young are fed mostly insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pine Grosbeak (l), Blue Grosbeak (r), Black-headed Grosbeak (below)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The most common breeding species where I live is the Rose-breasted\nGrosbeak. The males are a striking black and white color with a splash of red\non their chest, usually in a V-shape. One gruesome folk nickname of this bird\nis \u201ccutthroat.\u201d The females are brown streaked with faint yellow wing linings.\nThey\u2019re usually found in deciduous forests, old fields and overgrown orchards.\nBut as fall gives way to winter, another grosbeak may make a rare appearance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (l) feed on sunflower seeds and a male sings in the morning sunlight (r)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every winter I wait patiently, hoping to be invaded by\none of the coolest of its kind, the Evening Grosbeak! Here in the east, these\nseed-eating machines will infrequently venture south from Canada in search of\nfood, raiding backyard bird feeders like small swarms of locust. The males\u2019\nhandsome gold, black and white markings make them one of the most popular\nwinter time birds! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Male Evening Grosbeak
photo courtesy of Linnae Halvorsen Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I was kid growing up in NE Pennsylvania in the\n1970\u2019s and early 80\u2019s, every winter we would have hordes of Evening Grosbeaks\ndrop in to gorge on our sunflower seeds. It wouldn\u2019t be unusual to have flocks\nof 50+ drop in unexpected, feed ravenously, then quickly disappear.  Unfortunately, in the last 20 years the population\nof Evening Grosbeaks has been declining throughout their range. Scientists\nbelieve the main reasons for their decline is due to habitat loss in their\nnorthern breeding forests and pesticides used to control spruce budworm, an\nimportant food source for them, and other northern bird species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A flock of Evening Grosbeaks crowds into our Pennsylvania feeder, in this photo from 1980.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My birding year, and outdoor adventures, would not be\ncomplete if I didn\u2019t get a chance to see at least one Grosbeak, every\nyear\u2026\u2026.and maybe, just maybe, when the cold winds blow down from Canada, I may\nget another look at those eye-catching winter visitors from the north! Enjoy\nthe Outdoors!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite groups of birds in North America is the grosbeaks. These robust, colorful, and sometimes, very musical birds, can be found from the west coast to the east coast, and from Canada to Mexico. Specific species may use a variety of habitats during breeding and migration. Common members include Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Evening … Continue reading The Thick Beaks<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1709,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions\/1709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodyoutdoors.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}