The
evening grosbeak (
Hesperiphona vespertina) is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae found in North America.
The evening grosbeak is bulky, with a large bill and short tail. The bird has a distinct appearance, with the adult male featuring a bright yellow forehead and body, brown head, and white wing patches, while the adult female has a mainly olive-brown body with greyer underparts and white wing patches.
The evening grosbeak breeds in coniferous and mixed forests across Canada, the western mountainous areas of the United States, and Mexico. Its migration pattern is variable, sometimes reaching as far south as the southern U.S. in winters. These birds forage in trees and bushes, and their diet mainly consists of seeds, berries, and insects. The bird´s range has expanded eastward in historical times, likely due to the planting of Manitoba maples and other shrubs near farms and the availability of bird feeders during winter.
Taxonomy: The evening grosbeak was formally described in 1825 by the American naturalist William Cooper and given the binomial name
Fringilla vespertina. Cooper had been sent a specimen by the ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft that had been collected in the evening near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Cooper recorded the name of the bird in the Ojibwe language as "Paushkundamo".
The IOC checklist and the
Handbook of the Birds of the World place the evening grosbeak and the closely related hooded grosbeak in the genus
Hesperiphona. However, the Clements Checklist and the AOS checklist place the evening and hooded grosbeaks in the genus
Coccothraustes with the hawfinch.
The genus
Hesperiphona was introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850. The name is from Ancient Greek
hesperos meaning "evening" and
phōnē meaning "sound" or "cry". The specific epithet is from Latin
vespertinus meaning "of evening", "of twilight" or "crepuscular".
Three subspecies are recognised:
- H. v. vespertina (Cooper, W, 1825) – central, east Canada and northeast USA
- H. v. brooksi Grinnell, 1917 – west Canada and northwest USA
- H. v. montana Ridgway, 1874 – southwest USA to southwest Mexico
The evening grosbeak is similar in appearance to the Eurasian hawfinch, both being bulky, heavily built finches with large bills and short tails. The evening grosbeak ranges in length from 16 to and spans 30 to across the wings. In a large sampling of grosbeaks in Pennsylvania during winter, males weighed from , with an average of 60 g, while females weighed from , with an average of . Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is 6 to, the bill is and the tarsus is . The adult has a short black tail, black wings and a large pale bill. The adult male has a bright yellow forehead and body; its head is brown and there is a large white patch in the wing. The adult female is mainly olive-brown, greyer on the underparts and with white patches in the wings. They also have a loud distinctive ´chew´ call, similar to a glorified house sparrow.
Breeding and ecology: The breeding habitat is coniferous and mixed forest across Canada and the western mountainous areas of the United States and Mexico. It is an extremely rare vagrant to the British Isles, with just two records so far. The nest is built on a horizontal branch or in a fork of a tree.
The migration of this bird is variable; in some winters, it may wander as far south as the southern U.S.
These birds forage in trees and bushes, sometimes on the ground. They mainly eat seeds, berries, and insects. Outside of the nesting season they often feed in flocks. Sometimes, they will swallow fine gravel.
The range of this bird has expanded far to the east in historical times, possibly due to plantings of Manitoba maples and other maples and shrubs around farms and the availability of bird feeders in winter.