A Preponderance of Evening Grosbeaks

April 7, 2008 By John E. Riutta in Born Again Bird Watcher Archive, Musings and Observations, Uncategorized

This evening, as I do every evening, I pulled the SD card from my Wingscapes BirdCam to see what avian life visited the property today. To my great delight, there was a preponderance (if that is the correct venereal noun) of grosbeaks – Evening Grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertinus) to be precise.

According to Bill Thompson III in his latest book The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, (much more will be written here in the future about this marvelous new addition to the Peterson Field Guide series) the peculiar name of the Evening Grosbeak derives from a long since disproven idea that they sang only at dusk.

Whenever the Evening Grosbeaks arrive in the spring, it is a time of great joy in the household. It was one of the first birds we noted on the property when we bought it. It is one of the first birds both my daughter and my mother learned to identify (any age is the right age to start bird watching). However perhaps most importantly, it is a bird of striking beauty, bold of pattern and strong in personality; always a welcome visitor indeed.

Peace and good bird watching.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

→ John E. Riutta

2 Comments

Bevson
April 8, 2008 @ 03:34

Wonderful pictures. I have not seen one of these for at least 5 years. We just don’t get them here.
Mel
April 9, 2008 @ 07:38

That’s a handsome bird!

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