(Pheucticus melanocephalus)

The Black-headed Grosbeak is a 6-1/2 to 7-3/4-inch finch with a large, conical pinkish-white bill. The adult male Black-headed Grosbeak is an impressive visitor with his deep orange breast, collar and underparts, black head and upperparts, white undertail coverts, white wing bars and wing patches and white spots in a black tail.The male in Fall and Winter is duller and browner.

The adult female has black and white crown stripes, buffy underparts with streaking at the sides. She is very similar to the female Rose-breasted Grosbeak but has buffier breast and the streaking is confined to the sides. Immature Grosbeaks have plumages that are similar to the adult female. A colorful male is shown below.

Their song is mellodious and resembles that of a Robin's but is more fluent and mellow. The note is a sharp ik or eek.

This Grosbeak breeds in open woodlands and forest edges. The nest, a loose saucer, is located in a tree or bush. There three to four bluish-green spotted eggs are laid. Once hatched the fledglings fly in about 11 or 12 days. The Grosbeaks only have one brood each season.

The Grosbeak's diet consists mostly of insects with lesser quantities of fruit. They enjoy the offerings of seeds at feeders.

Breeds from southwestern Canada east to western North Dakota and Nebraska and south to the mountains of Mexico. Winters in Mexico. It is a neotropical migrant. The Black-headed and the Rose-breasted range overlaps in the Great Plains and it is here that both species have interbred somewhat.

Class: Aves | Order: Passeriformes | Family: Cardinalidae | Genus: Pheucticus
Species: P. melanocephalus

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photos courtesy Jeanne Jones, used with permission