The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks migrate thousands of miles each year so it’s always a treat to see them when they return to Marietta, GA!
A few years ago I was walking back across the deck, after refilling the bird feeders. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white and red and knew immediately what it was. Here in the metro Atlanta area of Georgia it’s not super common to see a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and they are merely passing through so they are easy to miss. In many years of feeding birds in 3 different counties of Georgia, I never saw one. I managed to snap a couple of blurry photos with my cell phone that year before it was gone. Luckily it came back several more times and brought females along with him. That first year we saw 1, but the following year 7 or 8 at a time visited, several times within a few weeks before they departed.
If you’re like me, you’ve been looking at these birds on bird-seed packaging, books about wild birds, art about wild birds and more for years. When you finally get to see one in person, it’s pretty impressive! The adult males have much sharper contrast between the black & white and red coloration. The females look much more brownish and lack the red, but otherwise look very similar. The large beak is used for cracking open seeds, and they seem to navigate to the black oil sunflower seeds in open trays/plates, and safflower seeds. Maybe they just enjoy cracking the shell open with that big beak of theirs? Who knows!
The Rose-breasted grosbeak is one of the species we enjoy seeing here in Marietta because of the journey that they make each year (2 times per year!) If you were to hop on a jet and fly from “Southern Newfoundland, Canada” to Northern Ecuador, you’d be looking at a flight of around 4300 miles one way. The birds can’t fly non-stop though so it’s really impressive to think that they probably cover 5,000-6,000 miles!!! With that kind of trip you’d make Diamond Status with Delta Airlines in no time at all!
September 2024: Update
Nearly a year to the day September 24th, 2023 I photographed some adult male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, with some adult female Grosbeaks and a few juvenile males (like the one pictured above). This year we had Hurricane Helene approaching and I was a bit worried the birds would circumvent us this year to avoid the storm. However, On September 28th I looked out the back door to see a female and a juvenile male once again! Two days later, I saw an adult Male as well! Here is a short video of our juvenile Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, who seems very uninterested in Cardinals and Titmice and more that get close to him. I think he is a bit tired from all the traveling and the rain delays as well!
I'm finding it interesting that these birds know where we are even after travelling literally thousands of miles, they find our back yard, and feeders, nestled in some 30-40 year old maple trees, pine trees, dogwoods and more. They seem to like eating in the mornings from 7-10am. After noon and you won't see a single bird (at least this has been our experience). Here are few photos I've take from this recent migratory group!
Have you ever seen any Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at your bird feeders? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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