Hesperiphona vespertina

Geographic Range

The evening grosbeak's range spans from southern Canada into northern California and as far east as New Hampshire. Year round they can be found in Canada and the Northern portions of the United States like the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes. They winter throughout the United States except for Florida.

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic nearctic
  • native native

Habitat

Coniferous and deciduous forests are the evening grosbeaks preferred habitats. During migration and winter the birds can be found in broad-leafed trees and open environments with fruiting shrubs. During breeding season, mixed coniferous forests are where these birds will be found. The preferred trees of evening grosbeaks are spruce and fir.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate temperate

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest forest

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban suburban

Physical Description

Evening Grosbeaks are medium-large songbirds with thick yellowish green, conical bills. They are sexually dimorphic in that males are more colorful than the females. The males have dark brown heads, bright yellow bellies and backs, black wings with white wing-patches, and short black tails. They also have yellow across their brows like a headlamp. Females are a duller brownish-gray with dark heads. They have black wings with white patches as well as yellow bellies. Females and juveniles closely resemble each other.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

Reproduction

Monogamy is the usual mating system for the evening grosbeak. If the food sources are unusually plentiful then polygamy can occur. Mating pairs are normally formed before they arrive at the breeding grounds. Courtship is quiet and without song. The male performs a "dance" for the female where he raises his head and tail and droops and vibrates his wings while he swivels back and forth. Another courtship ritual is the females and males alternately bowing at each other. Males do not defend their feeding territory during the breeding season due to speculation that food is abundant in their local patches.

• Mating System
• monogamous monogamous
• polygynous polygynous

Females have between zero and five eggs and incubate them for about twelve to fourteen days. Males feed the females while the females stay on the nest. The nestlings stay in the nest for another thirteen to fifteen days after hatching. Those birds will remain near their nests for another two to five days and continue to be fed by the parents. It is not uncommon for a breeding pair to have two broods in one breeding season.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• oviparous oviparous

While the female is on the nest, the male brings her food. Once the eggs are hatched both parents participate in feeding the young. After the young birds leave the nest they remain close by and the parents continue to feed them for 2-5 days before they young fledge.

Lifespan/Longevity

Little is known about the lifespan of evening grosbeaks in the wild. They can live up to 16 years.

Behavior

During winters evening grosbeak travel in noisy flocks around suburban areas looking for bird feeders and other food sources, but once breeding season arrives they pair bond and become more elusive, being as secretive as possible. During the winter there might be some territorial fighting for food sources, but during the breeding season the birds are less antagonistic. It is thought that when food is abundant their is less intraspecific competition. Evening grosbeaks are also nomadic in that if food is scarce in one area they will leave and find another territory where the resources are more abundant.

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• motile motile
• nomadic nomadic
• migratory migratory
• solitary solitary
• social social

Communication and Perception

Calls are usually made while flying in the flock. The call is a singular chirp in order to let others know where the individual is in flight. It is very similar to that of a house sparrow but the chirp is much louder. Lone individuals or perching flocks may also send out a similar mocking chirp so that the flying flock is aware that there are other birds around. The birds have a wide variety of calls used less often.

• Communication Channels
• acoustic acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

The thick conical bill that the evening grosbeak has is made for opening and crushing seeds from various trees and plants. These birds are mainly granivores but are also known to eat an abundant amount of spruce budworms Choristoneura fumiferana . When in the breeding season, the primary seeds eaten are cones from spruce, fir, and pine trees. During the winter or non-breeding season, the evening grosbeak makes frequent visits to local bird feeders and eat a large amount of sunflower seeds.

• Primary Diet
• carnivore carnivore
  • insectivore insectivore
• herbivore herbivore
  • granivore granivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts

Predation

The evening grosbeak has no known predators.

Ecosystem Roles

Evening grosbeaks feed heavily on the spruce budworm Choristoneura fumiferana when they can find it. This worm is a parasite of many pulpwood forest stands and can be detrimental to the trees. The birds are found in large numbers eating the larvae and pupae of the budworms. It is speculated that the parents even bring some of the budworms back to their nestlings to feed them.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Evening grosbeaks are known to frequent bird feeders during the winters and non-breeding seasons. The benefits of having these birds come to a feeder would be aesthetic for the human owner of the feeder.

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

There are no known adverse effects of the evening grosbeak on humans.

Conservation Status

The evening grosbeak is currently listed as least concern. The range of the population is large and they have plentiful resources. In the last few years the population has declined but not enough for it to become a concern (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 2016).

Other Comments

The evening grosbeak goes under a two different scientific names. The more common of the two is Coccothraustes vespertinus and the other being Hesperiphona vespertina .

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Holly Waterson (author), University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Christopher Yahnke (editor), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Tanya Dewey (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

Bekoff, M., A. Scott, D. Conner. 1989. Ecological Analyses of Nesting Success in Evening Grosbeaks. Oecologia , Vol. 81, No. 1: 67-74. Accessed August 11, 2016 at http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.uwsp.edu/stable/4219105?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents .

Kaufman, K. 2016. "Evening Grosbeak" (On-line). Accessed August 10, 2016 at http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/evening-grosbeak .

1994. "Canadian Wildlife Federation" (On-line). Accessed August 13, 2016 at http://www.hww.ca/en/wildlife/birds/evening-grosbeak.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/ .

2016. "Evening Grosbeak" (On-line). Accessed August 11, 2016 at http://www.nhptv.org/wild/eveninggrosbeak.asp .

Cornell University. 2015. "Evening Grosbeak" (On-line). All About Birds. Accessed August 10, 2016 at https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Evening_grosbeak/lifehistory .

2016. "Human Aging Genomic Resource" (On-line). AnAge: The Animal Aging and Longevity Database. Accessed August 11, 2016 at http://genomics.senescence.info/species/entry.php?species=Coccothraustes_vespertinus .

2016. "Seattle Audubon Society" (On-line). Accessed August 10, 2016 at http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/evening_grosbeak .

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 2016. "The ICUN Red List of Threatened Species" (On-line). Red List. Accessed August 11, 2016 at http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22720702/0 .