Visiting Evening Grosbeaks

This morning, we have been closely watching the bird feeders that hang outside our kitchen windows. Goldfinches occupy every available seed port on the vertical feeders, and half a dozen of them crowd each other on the small platform feeder. A White-breasted Nuthatch managed to sneak in to grab a snack, and a Hairy Woodpecker clung to the side of one feeder to have his breakfast. We are happy to see these birds, but it seems that almost everywhere we go these days folks are talking about Evening Grosbeaks. 

About twice the size of a Goldfinch, the male Evening Grosbeak is bright yellow, with a bold yellow stripe above the eye, and with white and black in the wings. Females are more subtly colored pale gray with gold highlights, and both have a very noticeable large, strong, conical, light-colored bill, well suited for cracking open large seeds. These large stocky members of the Finch family can be absent around here some years, but in other years they can show up in large numbers. They are part of a group of birds known as winter Finches, that also includes Pine Grosbeak, Redpoll, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, and Purple Finch. These species live and breed in the northern boreal forests, where they depend on food sources such as fruit, seeds, and cones. Every few years, when those food sources suddenly decline, the birds move south in winter to find something to eat. The winter of 2020-2021 was the most recent time when the population of northern Finch species irrupted southward and were seen in areas where they are not usually present.