The Black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) is a medium-sized, seed-eating bird in the same family as the northern cardinal, the Cardinalidae. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Rose-breasted grosbeak with which it hybridizes on the American Great Plains.
Di
DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
Ca
CarnivoreA carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of a...
In
InsectivoresAn insectivore is a carnivorous plant or animal that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of e...
He
HerbivoreA herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example, foliage, for the main component of its die...
Gr
GranivoreSeed predation, often referred to as granivory, is a type of plant-animal interaction in which granivores (seed predators) feed on the seeds of pla...
Fr
FrugivoreA frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts, and seeds. Approx...
Ar
ArborealArboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some anima...
Zo
ZoochoryZoochory animals are those that can disperse plant seeds in several ways. Seeds can be transported on the outside of vertebrate animals (mostly mam...
Te
TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Te
TerritorialA territory is a sociographical area that which an animal consistently defends against the conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against anima...
Ov
OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Al
AltricialAltricial animals are those species whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile. They lack hair or down, are not able to obtain food ...
Se
Serial monogamySerial monogamy is a mating system in which a pair bonds only for one breeding season.
So
SocialFl
FlockingFlocking birds are those that tend to gather to forage or travel collectively. Avian flocks are typically associated with migration. Flocking also ...
Mi
MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
B
starts withThe Black-headed grosbeak 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.
Black-headed grosbeaks range from the Pacific Coast to the middle of the US Great Plains and from southwestern Canada to the mountains of Mexico. US and Canadian birds are highly migratory, wintering in Mexico. They migrate south early in the fall and return to the north late in the spring. Black-headed grosbeaks prefer to live in deciduous and mixed wooded areas. They like to be in areas with large trees and thick bushes, such as patches of broadleaved trees and shrubs within conifer forests, including streamside corridors, river bottoms, lakeshores, wetlands, and suburban areas.
Black-headed grosbeaks are social birds. They spend time and migrate in small flocks; however, during the breeding season they become territorial and both males and females fight with other grosbeaks of the same sex. Black-headed grosbeaks are active during the day and rest at night. They frequently sing from prominent perches. Both the male and female sing, but have different songs, and both are known to sing from the nest while incubating. The song of these birds is a rich warble that is similar to that of an American robin, but more fluent, faster, softer, sweeter, and mellow with rising and falling passages that make the song much longer than the robin's. The note is a sharp ‘ik’ or ‘eek’. Black-headed grosbeaks forage in the foliage, on the ground, or in low vegetation. When feeding the chicks sing to their mother, rustling wings and displaying their yellow under-feathers.
Black-headed grosbeaks are mainly carnivores (insectivores) but also herbivores (granivores, frugivores). They eat insects and spiders, pine and other seeds, berries, and fruit. During the summer, they mostly eat spiders, snails, and insects. They are one of the few birds that can safely eat the poisonous monarch butterfly. In their wintering grounds, Black-headed grosbeaks consume many monarch butterflies, perhaps over one million per year in the overwintering colonies in Mexico. In the breeding season, Black-headed grosbeaks visit bird feeders for sunflower and other types of seed, and fruit, and also join northern orioles at feeders with grape jelly.
Black-headed grosbeaks are serially monogamous and form pairs that usually last for only one breeding season. The breeding season lasts from April to July. Males arrive on the nesting grounds before the females. When trying to court a female, males fly with their wings and tails spread and sing to eastablish a territory. 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 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 2-5 pale green, blue, or gray eggs that are spotted with reddish and dark brown. The eggs are incubated by both parents for 12-14 days. After the eggs have hatched, the fledglings leave the nest in about 11 or 12 days. The young are fed by both parents. They start to fly and become independent after another 2 weeks. Females become reproductively mature at 1 year of age, while males are ready to breed when they are 3 years old. Black-headed grosbeaks typically raise one brood per season, though two broods have been documented in foothills of the Sacramento Valley in California.
This species doesn’t face any major threats at present.
According to the All About Birds resource, the total breeding population size of the Black-headed grosbeak is 15 million individuals. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, and its numbers today are increasing.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...