Ode to the Evening Grosbeak

Tom Lambrecht

  Remember Saturday morning comics in the late ‘60s? … well, this is telling, but, I do. It was the one day of the week that my parents relaxed their usual draconian restrictions on TV viewing and my younger brother and I gorged ourselves on classic “toons.” Everything from the epic Mel Blanc-voiced Bugs Bunny episodes to Jonny Quest was fair game and I particularly took a hankering to “Heckle and Jeckle,” the brilliant Terrytoons comic about two wacky and absolutely fearless magpies that spent all of their screen time in creating hilarious snafus and  then extricating themselves. Don Markstein’s “Toonopedia” website attributes the popularity of the comic series to: “their calm assumption of victory against any foe…combined with their virulently aggressive nature.” 

  Though grosbeaks and magpies are not even in the same family, taxonomically speaking, and at this point any dyed-in-the wool birder is probably questioning my sanity, I conclude that Evening Grosbeaks are to the avian world what J&H are to the funnies.

  You just have to watch a flock of them descend on, and dominate your seed feeder as if they owned the place. Their large size and striking coloration, combined with their constant “chatter”, ensures them a place as one of my favorite local birds.

  Even usually reserved ornithologist extraordinaire, David Sibley, describing them in his indispensable western field guide, says “…Large and short-tailed, with massive head and bill. Male unmistakable.” The contrast of the yellow splash on the head and the white secondary feathers with the brown body sets off the male’s aggressive manners perfectly. The females are more subdued in greenish tones, but are still quite attractive. Compared to their more frequently-seen cousins in the finch family, the (not-unattractive) Pine Grosbeak, incoming Evening Grosbeaks are just as gregarious and close knit as a Brooklyn posse. It is a brave crossbill or siskin that can horn in on the seed trough for even a few moments. Take a few minutes to check them out when you get a chance, and you won’t be disappointed.