BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK GALLERY
(Pheuticus melanocephalus)
The male Black-headed Grosbeak is a stocky bird with burnt orange chest, neck, and rump. It has a black head, tail, and wings with irregular-shaped withe wing patches. It has a large bill, with the upper bill darker than the lower part of the bill. The female appears like an overgrown sparrow, overall brown with a lighter breast and belly, large two-toned bill, prominent white eyebrows, and yellow wing linings, as seen in flight. All About Birds has this additional descriptive information about the Black-headed Grosbeak: In western North America, the sweet song of the Black-headed Grosbeak caroling down from the treetops sounds like a tipsy robin welcoming spring. The flashy black, white, and cinnamon males and the less flamboyant females sing from perches in suburbs, desert thickets, and mountain forests. At feeders they effortlessly shuck sunflower seeds with their heavy bills. The showy male puts in equal time on the domestic front: both sexes sit on the eggs, feed the young, and feistily defend their nesting territory.
We saw our first Black-headed Grosbeak on April 26, 2018, while visiting one of the birding houses in Paradise, Arizona. The bird we saw that day was a distinctive breeding male. I believe the pictures below were taken at The George Walker House. If you are interested in reading more about our trip to this special place in Arizona, see my blog here.
On my birthday birding trip the end of August and first part of September, 2020, I saw a number of nonbreeding female adult Black-headed Grosbeaks at both of the Davis Mountains State Park blinds. Very beautiful and very different from the breeding males!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy our photos of the beautiful Black-headed Grosbeak!
Black-headed Grosbeak “Cool Facts” From All About Birds…
- Despite his showy plumage, the male Black-headed Grosbeak shares about equally with the female in incubating eggs and feeding young.
- The male Black-headed Grosbeak does not get its adult breeding plumage until it is two years old. First-year males can vary from looking like a female to looking nearly like an adult male. Only yearling males that most closely resemble adult males are able to defend a territory and attempt to breed.
- The Black-headed Grosbeak’s scientific names are both well-suited. Its species name, melanocephalus, means “black-headed.” And its genus name, Pheucticus, refers either to the Greek pheuticus for “shy” or phycticus meaning “painted with cosmetics,” fitting for a showy bird that forages in dense foliage.
- In central Mexico, where monarch butterflies and Black-headed Grosbeaks both spend the winter, the grosbeaks are one of the butterflies’ few predators. Toxins in the monarch make them poisonous to most birds, but Black-headed Grosbeaks and a few others can eat them. They feed on monarchs in roughly 8-day cycles, apparently to give themselves time to eliminate the toxins.
- Both male and female Black-headed Grosbeaks are loud songsters. The female’s song is generally a simplified version of the male song. Occasionally, the female sings a full “male” song, possibly to deceive its mate about the presence of intruders and get him to spend more time at the nest.
- The oldest known Black-headed Grosbeak was a male, at least 11 years, 11 months old, when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Montana.