Pine Grosbeak

Pinicola enucleator

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family FRINGILLIDAE - Subfamily Carduelinae

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

One of the larger members of its family, the Pine Grosbeak is a bird of the boreal forests, found across northern Eurasia and North America, and south into the mountains of western Canada and the United States. A large, unwary finch, it makes periodic winter irruptions into southern Canada and northern United States. It is the largest and rarest of the "winter finches."

Cool Facts

• The tameness and slow-moving behavior of the Pine Grosbeak gave rise to local name in Newfoundland of "mope."

• Winter flocks may stay near a tree with abundant fruit until all of it is consumed.

• Winter irruptions are infrequent and irregular. To see an illustration of the invasion of the winter 1997-98, based on data gathered through BirdSource's Winter Finch Survey, click here.

• A breeding adult Pine Grosbeak develops pouches in the floor of its mouth for carrying food to its young.

• During most of the year, 99% of diet is vegetable matter, especially buds, seeds, and fruits of spruce, pine, juniper, elm, maple, mountain ash, apple, and crabapple. It feeds insects and spiders to its young, though, often mixed with plant foods. It drinks water or eats snow daily.

Description

• Size: 20-25 cm (8-10 in)
• Wingspan: 33 cm (13 in)

• Large finch; medium-sized songbird.
• Plump, heavy-chested.
• Dark wings with two white wingbars.
• Large stubby curved bill.
• Male red.

• Blackish-brown tail and wings.
• Tail long and slightly forked.
• Eyes black.
• Bill dark.
• Legs dark.

Sex Differences

Sexually dimorphic: Male with rosy-red head, chest and back, rest gray; females with yellow-olive where male has red.

Male

Pinkish-red head, breast, back and rump. Streaked back. White undertail coverts. Blackish brown wings and tail. White wingbars and tertial edges.

Female

Yellowish olive head and rump. Gray underparts and back. Blackish brown wings and tail. White wingbars and tertial edges.

Immature

Immature male usually is indistinguishable from immature or adult female until the second year when it molts and grows new reddish feathers. Some young males have some red or orange feathers in the body plumage, which females apparently lack. Females average duller than males (especially on the crown and rump) and have a lighter russet tinge to the head or lighter olive tinge to the breast than males. The color of the head and body is often golden orange or reddish bronze in males, in contrast to golden yellow of the female, and the chin is often buffier or more brown-gray than in the female.

Similar Species

• White-winged Crossbill is smaller, has crossed-tipped bill, shorter tail; females streaked.
• Evening Grosbeak is shorter-tailed, more stocky, and has large pale bill.
• House Finch is smaller with less prominent wingbars; male with streaked sides.

Sound

Song is a sequence of clear, warbling, flute-like notes. Flight calls vary geographically, but can sound like "tee-tee-tew," resembling calls of Greater Yellowlegs.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds in subarctic and subalpine coniferous forests of North America and Eurasia.

Winter Range

Winters mainly in breeding range, but may go farther south irregularly to southern Canada and northern United States.

Habitat

• Breeds in open coniferous forests.
• Wintering areas determined by food availability, so found in wider variety of habitats, including urban areas.

Food

Seeds, buds, fruit, some insects.

Behavior

Foraging

Eats fruits by biting through and discarding the pulp and crushing the seed. Insects caught by clumsy flycatching. Eats sunflower seeds at feeders in parts of range (rarely comes to feeders in other parts of range).

Other Behavior

Found in flocks in winter; strongly territorial in breeding season. Distinctive call note often given in flight.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup nest in tree

Egg Description

Pale blue with darker dots and markings

Clutch Size

Usually 3-4 eggs. Range: 2-5.

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless.

Conservation Status

Status largely unknown because of difficulty of assessing populations.

Other Names

Durbec des sapins (French)
Camachuelo picogrueso (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

1.) Adkisson, C. S. 1999. Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator). in The Birds of North America, No. 456 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 2.) Pyle, P. 1997. Identification Guide to North American Birds. Part I. Columbidae to Ploceidae. Slate Creek Press, Bolinas, CA.