Family:
The evening grosbeak is a large, heavyset finch with a thick neck, full chest, short tail, and an enormous, powerful, conical bill. The male has yellow plumage with a black tail, and prominent white patches on the black wings. The head is dark grey with a broad yellow stripe over the eye, and the bill is pale ivory. The female is grey with black and white wings, a yellowy-green wash on the neck and flanks, and pale green bill.
Despite its name, the evening grosbeak is not related to the rose-breasted grosbeak which is a member of the cardinal family. Neither does it only sing at dusk, which gave rise to the descriptive part of its name as well as its scientific name vespertine, from the Latin vesper meaning ‘evening’. In fact, although it is a songbird, it doesn’t really sing at all. That is to say it doesn’t use any complex sounds to attract a mate or defend its territory, uttering a succession of simple calls and warbles instead.
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Evening grosbeaks eat a wide variety of seeds, including maple, box elder, ash, cherry, apple, elm, pine, and poplar, and small fruits and berries, including cherries, crab apples, snowberries, and juniper berries, as well as buds and maple sap. They can crush seeds that are too large for common redpolls and pine siskins, and these smaller species will often eat the scraps that evening grosbeaks leave behind.
In breeding season, they will also eat invertebrates such as larvae, caterpillars, and aphids.
During breeding season, evening grosbeaks are found in Canada, and western areas of the United States and Mexico in mature coniferous forests. They migrate south for the winter to California, Texas, and the Gulf Coast states where they can be found in deciduous woodland and suburban and urban areas.
