I've been getting at least one phone call each day asking what kind of bird this is. I personally have at least 10 that I know of visiting my feeders and making quite a rukous.
This is an adolescent Rose-breasted Grosbeak!! These are beautiful birds that are full of character.
Here are some fun facts about these birds:
- The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak shares incubation duties with the female and is known to even sing while sitting on the nest.
- The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is beneficial to farmers, consuming many potato beetles and weed seeds.
- The Rose-breasted Grosbeak will breed with the Black-headed Grosbeak in areas where their ranges overlap.
- Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are known for singing on moonlit nights, sometimes all night, but never very loudly.
- The nests of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are commonly parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird, possibly due to the singing done by both the male and female as they construct the nest.
- Rose-breasted Grosbeaks’ preferred feeder items are sunflower, safflower and peanuts.
- The nests of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak are so thinly constructed that eggs often can be seen through the nest from below.
- The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak shares equally in incubating eggs and feeding young, despite having a much showier plumage than their respective females.
- The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have unusual diets for birds with such a big seed-eating beak. Throughout most of the year, over half of their diet is made up of insects. Their huge beaks allows them to eat large grasshoppers, crickets and other insects that have tough exoskeletons.
You can offer Rose-breasted Grosbeaks suet, millet sprays, black oil sunflower seed, sunflower chips and fruit. I hope you enjoy them!
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