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Evening Grosbeak

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: evening grosbeak
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North American grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina) that is brown, yellow, black, and white. Like all other grosbeaks, it has a large conical bill. It eats seeds and tends to form loose flocks in flight.

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Animal Encyclopedia: Evening grosbeak
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Coccothraustes vespertinus

SUBFAMILY

Carduelinae

TAXONOMY

Coccothraustes vespertinus Cooper, 1825.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Grosbec errant; German: Abendkernbeißer; Spanish: Picogordo Vespertino.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The evening grosbeak has a body length of about 7–8.7 in (18–22 cm) and weighs about 2.1 oz (60 g). It has a rather stout body, a short tail, and a stout yellow beak. The male is bright yellow, with black wings with a large white wing-patch, a black tail, and a black crown on the top of the head. Females are a duller gray and brown pattern, with white wing-patches.

DISTRIBUTION

The evening grosbeak inhabits the southern boreal forest and montane forest regions of North America. The range includes Canada, the western United States, and northern Mexico. They may winter in the breeding range or wander extensively, particularly to the east and south of the breeding range. They periodically irrupt from the usual wintering areas and may then be abundant in areas where they are not commonly seen.

HABITAT

Evening grosbeaks breed in mixed conifer forest, but may winter in more open habitats.

BEHAVIOR

Evening grosbeaks are highly social birds, especially during the non-breeding season when they may occur in large flocks. The territorial song is a repeated chirp-like call.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Evening grosbeaks feed mainly on tree seeds, but also frequent winter feeding sites to get sunflower seeds. Their diet also includes insects, buds, sap, fruits, and berries.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Breeding pairs are monogamous and nest in colonies. The female builds a frail, cup-shaped nest of twigs, grass, moss, roots, and pine needles on a horizontal tree branch far out from the trunk about 20–60 ft (6–18 m) above the ground. She incubates three to five pale blue to bluish eggs spotted with gray, purple, or brown for 11–14 days. The male feeds the incubating female. The altricial young are brooded by the female and fed by both sexes. They fledge in 13–14 days. One to two broods per year.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened. The evening grosbeak is a widespread and abundant species and may be increasing in abundance and range.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Evening grosbeaks flock to areas infested with spruce budworm to breed and raise their young. (If an evening grosbeak were to get all its daily energy from budworm larvae it would eat 1,000 a day.) Because of its appetite for this destructive pest, the evening grosbeak is considered a beneficial bird.

Western Bird Guide: evening grosbeak
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Coccothraustes vespertinus 8″ (20 cm). Size of a starling. A chunky, short-tailed finch with a very large, pale, conical bill. Male: Dull yellow, with a dark head, yellow eyebrow, and black and white wings; suggests an overgrown Goldfinch. Female: Silver-gray, with enough yellow, black, and white to be recognized. Gregarious. Undulating flight, shape, and large white wing patches identify them.

Voice: A ringing, finch-like clee-ip; a high, clear thew.

Range: Spruce belt of Canada, ne. and w. U.S. to Oaxaca. Winters to se. U.S., Mexico.

Habitat: Conifer forests; in winter, box-elders and other maples; also fruiting shrubs; often swarm at feeding trays.

WordNet: evening grosbeak
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: North American grosbeak
  Synonym: Hesperiphona vespertina

Wikipedia: Evening Grosbeak
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Evening Grosbeak
Female in winter, Gatineau Park, Quebec
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Genus: Coccothraustes
Species: C. vespertinus
Binomial name
Coccothraustes vespertinus
(W. Cooper, 1825)
Summer and all-year range
Synonyms

Hesperiphona vespertina

The Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) is a large finch. In the past, it was treated in a genus of its own as Hesperiphona vespertina, but is now usually placed in the same genus as the Hawfinch of Eurasia.

The breeding habitat is coniferous and mixed forest across Canada and the western mountainous areas of the United States and Mexico. It is an extremely rare vagrant to the British Isles, with just two records so far. The nest is built on a horizontal branch or in a fork of a tree.

The migration of this bird is variable; in some winters, it may wander as far south as the southern U.S.

A female Evening Grosbeak in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

The Evening Grosbeak is 18.5 cm long. The adult has a short black tail, black wings and a large pale bill. The adult male has a bright yellow forehead and body; its head is brown and there is a large white patch in the wing. The adult female is mainly olive-brown, greyer on the underparts and with white patches in the wings.

These birds forage in trees and bushes, sometimes on the ground. They mainly eat seeds, berries and insects. Outside of the nesting season they often feed in flocks. Sometimes, they will swallow fine gravel.

The range of this bird has expanded far to the east in historical times, possibly due to plantings of Manitoba maples and other maples and shrubs around farms and the availability of bird feeders in winter.

Example alt text
Male Evening Grosbeak

Contents

References

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External links

Further reading

Book

Gillihan, S. W., and B. Byers. 2001. Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes verspertinus). In The Birds of North America, No. 599 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Thesis

  • Prescott DRC. Ph.D. (1992). Differential migration in the evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus): A test of hypotheses. University of Calgary (Canada), Canada.

Articles

  • Bekoff M. (1995). Cognitive ethology, vigilance, information gathering, and representation: Who might know what and why?. Behavioural Processes. vol 35, no 1-3. p. 225-237.
  • Bekoff M. (1995). Vigilance, Flock Size, and Flock Geometry: Information Gathering by Western Evening Grosbeaks (Aves, Fringillidae). Ethology. vol 99, no 2. p. 150-161.
  • Bekoff M, Scott AC & Conner DA. (1987). Nonrandom Nest-Site Selection in Evening Grosbeaks. Condor. vol 89, no 4. p. 819-829.
  • Bekoff M, Scott AC & Conner DA. (1989). Ecological Analyses of Nesting Success in Evening Grosbeaks. Oecologia. vol 81, no 1. p. 67-74.
  • Bennetts RE & Hutto RL. (1985). Attraction of Social Fringillids to Mineral Salts an Experimental Study. Journal of Field Ornithology. vol 56, no 2. p. 187-189.
  • Brunswig NL, Winton SG & Hamel PB. (1983). A Dietary Overlap of Evening Grosbeaks Coccothraustes-Vespertinus and Carolina Parakeets Conuropsis-Carolinensis. Wilson Bulletin. vol 95, no 3.
  • Cumming EE & Diamond AW. (2002). Songbird community composition versus forest rotation age in Saskatchewan boreal mixedwood forest. Canadian Field Naturalist. vol 116, no 1. p. 69-75.
  • Daoust PY, Busby DG, Ferns L, Goltz J, McBurney S, Poppe C & Whitney H. (2000). Salmonellosis in songbirds in the Canadian Atlantic provinces during winter-summer 1997-98. Canadian Veterinary Journal-Revue Veterinaire Canadienne. vol 41, no 1. p. 54-59.
  • Dean J. (1985). An Extraordinary Evening Grosbeak. Ontario Bird Banding. vol 17, no 17.
  • Desser SS. (1980). An Ultrastructural Study of the Asexual Development of a Presumed Isospora-Sp in Mononuclear Phagocytic Cells of the Evening Grosbeak Hesperiphona-Vespertina. Journal of Parasitology. vol 66, no 4. p. 601-612.
  • Fee BA & Bekoff M. (1986). POLYGYNY IN THE EVENING GROSBEAK. Wilson Bulletin. vol 98, no 2. p. 308-308.
  • Garrison BA, Triggs ML & Wachs RL. (2005). Short-term effects of group-selection timber harvest on landbirds in montane hardwood-conifer habitat in the central Sierra Nevada. Journal of Field Ornithology. vol 76, no 1. p. 72-82.
  • Gilbert FF & Allwine R. (1991). Spring Bird Communities in the Oregon Cascade Range USA. U S Forest Service General Technical Report PNW. vol 285, p. 145-159.
  • Gillihan SW & Byers B. (2001). Evening Grosbeak: Coccothraustes vespertinus. Birds of North America. vol 599, p. 1-23.
  • Hagar JC, McComb WC & Emmingham WH. (1996). Bird communities in commercially thinned and unthinned Douglas-fir stands of western Oregon. Wildlife Society Bulletin. vol 24, no 2. p. 353-366.
  • Hahn TP, Kelsey TR & Pereyra ME. (2001). Geographic variation in flight calls of a nomadic cardueline finch, the evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus). American Zoologist. vol 41, no 6. p. 1462-1463.
  • Hayes JP, Weikel JM & Huso MMP. (2003). Response of birds to thinning young Douglas-fir forests. Ecological Applications. vol 13, no 5. p. 1222-1232.
  • Helleiner CW. (1979). Xanthochroism in the Evening Grosbeak. Canadian Field Naturalist. vol 93, no 1. p. 66-67.
  • Hudon J. (1997). Non-melanic schizochroism in Alberta Evening Grosbeaks, Coccothraustes vespertinus. Canadian Field Naturalist. vol 111, no 4. p. 652-654.
  • Kinch B. (2006). Northern Shrike preys on Pine Grosbeak. Ontario Birds. vol 24, no 3. p. 160-161.
  • Koenig WD & Knops JMH. (2001). Seed-crop size and eruptions of North American boreal seed-eating birds. Journal of Animal Ecology. vol 70, no 4. p. 609-620.
  • Langelier LA & Garton EO. (1986). Management Guidelines for Increasing Populations of Birds That Feed on Western Spruce Budworm. U S Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Handbook. vol 653, p. 1-19.
  • LeBaron GS. (2000). The one-hundred first Christmas Bird Count. American Birds. vol 101, p. 6-12.
  • Levine ND. (1982). The Genus Atoxoplasma Protozoa Apicomplexa. Journal of Parasitology. vol 68, no 4. p. 719-723.
  • Manuwal DA. (1991). Spring Bird Communities in the Southern Washington Cascade Range USA. U S Forest Service General Technical Report PNW. vol 285, p. 161-175.
  • McGraw KJ, Beebee MD, Hill GE & Parker RS. (2003). Lutein-based plumage coloration in songbirds is a consequence of selective pigment incorporation into feathers. Comparative Biochemistry & Physiology Part B Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 135B. vol 4, p. 689-696.
  • McGraw KJ, Hudon J, Hill GE & Parker RS. (2005). A simple and inexpensive chemical test for behavioral ecologists to determine the presence of carotenoid pigments in animal tissues. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology. vol 57, no 4. p. 391-397.
  • Mikaelian I, Ley DH, Claveau R, Lemieux M & Berube J-P. (2001). Mycoplasmosis in evening and pine grosbeaks with conjunctivitis in Quebec. Journal of Wildlife Diseases. vol 37, no 4. p. 826-830.
  • Mindell DP & Sites JWJ. (1987). Tissue Expression Patterns of Avian Isozymes a Preliminary Study of Phylogenetic Applications. Systematic Zoology. vol 36, no 2. p. 137-152.
  • O'Hara PD, Fernandez G, Haase B, de la Cueva H & Lank DB. (2006). Differential migration in Western Sandpipers with respect to body size and wing length. Condor. vol 108, no 1. p. 225-232.
  • Prescott DRC. (1991). Winter Distribution of Age and Sex Classes in an Irruptive Migrant the Evening Grosbeak Coccothraustes-Vespertinus. Condor. vol 93, no 3. p. 694-700.
  • Prescott DRC. (1994). Intraspecific and geographical trends in body size of a differential migrant, the Evening Grosbeak. Auk. vol 111, no 3. p. 693-702.
  • Scott AC & Bekoff M. (1991). Breeding Behavior of Evening Grosbeaks. Condor. vol 93, no 1. p. 71-81.
  • Sewall K, Kelsey R & Hahn TP. (2004). Discrete variants of Evening Grosbeak flight calls. Condor. vol 106, no 1. p. 161-165.
  • Svingen D & Rogers TH. (1994). Winter Season: Idaho/Western Montana Region. National Audubon Society Field Notes. vol 48, no 3. p. 320-322.
  • Takekawa JY & Garton EO. (1984). HOW MUCH IS AN EVENING GROSBEAK WORTH. Journal of Forestry. vol 82, no 7. p. 426-428.
  • Van Scheik WJ. (1994). Burrowing mites that pester birds. Blue Jay. vol 52, no 4. p. 204-205.
  • Wilson WH, Jr. (1995). The distribution of wintering birds in central Maine: The interactive effects of landscape and bird feeders. Journal of Field Ornithology. vol 65, no 4. p. 512-519.
  • Zach R & Mayoh KR. (1985). Gamma-Radiation-Induced Spatial Avoidance in Birds. Radiation Research. vol 104, no 1. p. 66-70.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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