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Through the Garden Gate: Black-headed Grosbeak

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Through the Garden Gate

Black-headed Grosbeak

by Judy Brinkerhoff

One of the most frequent visitors to my sunflower seed feeders this summer has been a family of Black-Headed Grosbeaks. First to appear in mid-April was the male, his brilliant orange-rust breast, black head, and black and white wings vivid against the dusty-green oak leaves. By early summer, the female and newly-fledged babies came to eat, looking like pale, faded versions of the males.

Shy and timid, they cracked sunflower seeds throughout the day, fleeing at the least sound or movement from me. The babies continually uttered sweet, plaintive, mewling sounds, while the male announced their arrival with a sharp chirp.

Members of the large family of seed-eaters, which includes sparrows and tanagers, you'll find Black-Headed Grosbeaks in wooded areas, rather than open meadows or along the coast. Their beaks seem almost too large for their bodies, triangular and obviously adapted for the strength necessary for seed cracking.

For novice birders, a good place to begin identification is to look at a bird's beak. If it's fat and thick, you're probably looking at a seed eater; if it's narrow, pointed, thin, it's probably an insect-eating bird. There are many other types of beaks which are adapted for other functions, but the insect versus seed-eating beak is a good starting place.

The male grosbeak's song is symphonic, similar to a robin's, beautiful and thrilling. Grosbeaks arrive in their breeding grounds in the west and Sonoma County from their wintering areas in Mexico in mid-April. In early autumn, they begin their migration back to the warm winters of Mexico.

My sunflower feeders are active throughout the year, but my favorite time is spring and summer, when I can quietly watch the Black-Headed Grosbeaks.