Black-headed grosbeak
| Black-headed grosbeak | |
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| Male in California, United States | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Cardinalidae |
| Genus: | Pheucticus |
| Species: | P. melanocephalus |
| Binomial name | |
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Pheucticus melanocephalus (Swainson, 1827) |
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The black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) is a medium-size seed-eating bird in the same family as the northern cardinal, the Cardinalidae. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the rose-breasted grosbeak (P. ludovicianus) with which it hybridises on the American Great Plains.
The 19 cm (7.5 in) long, 47 g (1.7 oz) black-headed grosbeak is a migratory bird, with nesting grounds from southwestern British Columbia, through the western half of the United States, into central Mexico. It occurs as an vagrant further south in Central America.
The black-headed grosbeak's approximate length is 18–19 cm (7.1–7.5 in); it is similar in size to a common starling. As per its name, the male has a black head, and black wings and tail with prominent white patches. Its breast is dark to tawny orange in color, and its belly is yellow. The female has a brown head, neck and back with sparrow-like black streaks. She also has white streaks down the middle of her head, over her eyes and on her cheeks. Her breast is white and wings and tail are grayish-brown with two white wing bars and yellowish wing edges.
The black-headed grosbeak prefers to live in deciduous and mixed wooded areas. It likes to be in areas where there are large trees as well as thick bushes, such as patches of broadleaved trees and shrubs within conifer forests, including streamside corridors, river bottoms, lakeshores, wetlands, and suburban areas.
Females build nests among the dense foliage on an outer branch of tall broadleaved trees or shrubs, 3–35 ft (0.91–10.67 m) above ground. They will occasionally build in dense shrubs such as blackberry. The nest is in the shape of an open saucer, made of fine grass, rootlets twigs, bark and conifer needles. It is often lined with rootlets, hair, and fine plant material. The female lays two to five pale green, blue or gray eggs that are spotted with reddish and dark brown. The eggs are incubated by the male and female for 12–14 days. After the eggs have hatched the fledglings leave the nest in about 11 or 12 days, however they are unable to fly for another two weeks. The young are fed by both adults. The black-headed grosbeak's monogamy is under study, but pair bonds generally last for only one breeding season. They typically have one brood per season, though double broods have been documented in foothills of the Sacramento Valley in California.
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Wikipedia