For The Birds: Songbird with the Big Beak

Male Black-headed Grosbeak enjoying birdbath
Photo by Craig Kerns

By Christine Southwick

Do you have a medium-sized bird (larger than a finch, smaller than a robin), with a huge beak? Congrats!

The Black-headed Grosbeaks have returned from Mexico and can be found using birdbaths and eating birdseed, using their large seed-cracking conical beaks.

If they find suitable habitat they may stay and breed here, if not they will continue into British Columbia.

The male Black-headed Grosbeak has a black head, a bright orange-cinnamon body with lemon-yellow on the breast and underside of the spotted-black wings. 

Female Black-headed Grosbeak
Photo by Christine Southwick

The female has a brown striped head, brown wings with spots, lemon-yellow wing-lining, and she is obviously a grosbeak

Both male and female Black-headed Grosbeaks sing a faster, mellow, American Robin-like song, with the females having a slightly different song from the males.

Seasonally monogamous, the males help incubate the 2-5 eggs, with the nest being built in trees such as willow, alder, big-leaf maple, and cottonwood. 

Male Black-Headed Grosbeak
Photo by Christine Southwick

They sometimes build their nests in dense stands of blackberries. The young usually leave the nest up to two weeks before they can fly —both parents feed their precocious offspring until they can safely fly and feed on their own.

Many local birds use this tactic since nests with noisy nestlings can be an easy target.

If you see a feathered baby bird with NO obvious injuries, leave it/them alone.

The parents are nearby. This is normal songbird behavior and the parents will feed them until they can fly.

Keep cats away from these walking fledglings.

Suitable habitat is dense deciduous areas, with large trees and thick bushes, especially near some sort of water, such as: streamside corridors (called riparian), wetlands, lakeshores, or even a garden creek or pond. They appear to dislike dense coniferous forests, but can be found in patches of broadleaf trees and shrubs within conifer forests.

Female Black-headed Grosbeak
Photo by Christine Southwick

During the summer they eat mainly insects, spiders, and snails, in addition to seeds. 

In the fall they will gladly eat any berries they find, including the highly invasive ivy and holly berries.

If you really want Black-headed Grosbeaks in your yard, provide black-oil sunflower seeds, running water, and deciduous trees or bushes. 

Oh, and you might try putting out a tiny dish of grape jelly near the sunflower seeds.