Rare Sighting of Male Black-Headed Grosbeak Wintering in CA - here he is hanging out on the step, watching the view.
We have been seeing what for us was a most unusual looking bird – and it turns out there is a reason for that. This little fellow is a black-headed grosbeak, and he is supposed to spend the winters in Central Mexico or Latin American, not here by the Central Coast in California. There is a likely, sad reason for him wintering here – he has a wing that hangs down too far, and it probably made the winter migration too hard for him. He visits our bird feeder several times a day. The great folks at Cornell Lab of Ornithology told me there is nothing that I can do to keep him warm – luckily they can fluff up their feathers to do that. Here too is a photo of our local Blue Jay – he is a spunky fellow, delightful in his own right:
Spunky Blue Jay
Here is a video of him taking turns with our local Blue Jay at the bird feeder – very polite these two! I guess they can’t figure our who’s bigger so they’re sharing!
