The Grosbeaks Are Here (with slideshow)

Story and photos by Tom Hodgson

After an absence of more than 20 years, flocks of evening grosbeaks have returned.

Several local feeder watchers are reporting them. Your feeder could be next. Faced with a shortage of food in their boreal forest habitat, they are flooding into Michigan and chowing down on sunflower seeds at feeders throughout the state. Flocks of 50 or 60 birds are not uncommon.

They are striking, boldly colored birds.  Adult males are yellow and black with white patches on the wings. They have dark heads with a bright-yellow stripe over the eye. Females and immatures are mostly gray, with white-and-black wings and a greenish-yellow tinge to the neck and sides. The bill is ivory in adult males and greenish-yellow in females. 

They have massive beaks that easily crush sunflower seeds. Evening Grosbeaks can crush seeds that are too large for Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins to open. These smaller birds often seek out the grosbeaks and glean the food scraps they leave behind.

The evening grosbeak is about the size of a cardinal. The rose-breasted grosbeak common here in the summer has a similar size and build, but with a very different color pattern.

They are very different than the rose-breasted in another way, too. In spring, the rose-breasted has a beautiful melodious song designed to attract a mate. Evening grosbeaks have a series of chirpy calls, but no song. A songbird without a song, imagine that.

So, who else should we be on the lookout for this winter? If evening grosbeaks are here, can pine siskins and redpolls be far behind?

I already have pine siskins, but I am still waiting for redpolls.

Check your feeders for these infrequent visitors.