I was at Big Morongo Preserve yesterday for an hour or so, before meeting Judy at Whitewater Rock. I stood near the bird feeders most of the time hoping to see a new bird for my bird list. Amazingly I did.
There were some grosbeaks mostly sitting in seed feeders that I assume were black-headed grosbeaks which I have seen there before. Then a group of fairly young men arrived arrived and were watching and proclaimed that several of them were rose-breasted grosbeaks. They noted red under the wing and some red streaks on the breast.
As I came home and looked it up I was surprised to see how far out of their normal territory they were. About the closest they normally get is New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.
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| Range map for rose-breasted grosbeak (Wikipedia). |
The male does not look anything like a female. It has a black head and back and white underparts with a big red splotch in the middle. The female looks amazingly like a black-headed grosbeak female.
As I read about them I begin to wonder if I may have seen hybrids between the rose-breasted and black-headed grosbeak.
The red under the flapping wings is so dramatic! Congratulations on adding another beautiful bird to your list.
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