Evening Grosbeak

If your black oil sunflower seeds are vanishing at an alarming rate, and your feeders seem especially crowded and noisy, the “grocery beaks” may be paying you a visit!

Photo by Rick Brumble

Evening Grosbeaks are gregarious, colorful members of the finch family, with an erratic schedule for visiting Portland area bird feeders!  We’re most likely to see them in the spring as they stop at sunflower feeders to dine before continuing their journeys to breeding grounds in the Cascades. 

About the size of a robin, the male is truly a color spectacle – a beautiful yellow body accented with black crown and tail, further contrasted with black and white wings.  Females are more camouflaged for nest-sitting:  grayish-tan all over, with the same black and white wings.  Both males and females sport heavy conical bills that are perfect for cracking sunflower seeds!

Traveling in flocks of 12 to 50 birds, Evening Grosbeaks can consume significant quantities of their favorite feeder food – black oil sunflower seed!  It is said that they were given their name by an early ornithologist who believed that when stirred from its roost at night, the bird would gave a peeer call.  As those of us who host the “grocery beaks” in our backyards know, their call can be heard during the day as well!

When now chowing down on sunflower seeds at a backyard feeder, Evening Grosbeaks eat a variety of fruits and nuts.  They really like maple seeds, and also eat insects and other invertebrates