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Pine Grosbeak

Status Irregularly fairly common resident. Breeds. In summer it is generally found in boggy coniferous woodlands remote from human habitation. Although this species still comes to settled areas in winter, it is not seen as commonly or as regularly as it was 70 years ago, when it fed on maple and ash seeds along town streets. It was then a regular winter bird whose arrival was anticipated as the arrival of robins is now anticipated in March. Nowadays in winter it is seen usually in small flocks scattered over the rural countryside. Pine Grosbeaks reported on Christmas Bird Counts around the province have seldom numbered more than 100, although over 200 were noted on the Wolfville Count in 1977 and on the Halifax West Count in 1978.

Description Length: 23-25 cm. Adult male: Head, rump and underparts rose-red, becoming gray on belly; wings and tail black, the wings with two white bars; back dark gray, the feathers margined with rose-red. Adult female: Gray, with crown and rump olive-yellow and wings and tail black, the wings with two white bars.

Breeding Nest: Composed of twigs and beard lichen, with a lining of fine vegetable matter mixed with fur; usually placed close to the trunk of a dwarfed, spindly spruce that grows in open, boggy woods where sphagnum flourishes. Eggs: 3-4; pale green, flecked with various shades of lavender and brown. It is a late nester, construction usually being delayed until about 1 June. A nest found on 16 June 1910 at Jordan Falls, Shelburne County, contained three partially incubated eggs. On 20 June of that year another was found in the same district. It contained one egg, but when visited three days later, a red squirrel was sitting on the edge of the empty nest. The composition and location of these two nests, both found by Harold F. Tufts, were typical.

On 18 August 1928, Rand (1930) collected a fully feathered immature male at Fisher Lake, Annapolis County, and saw several bob-tailed young there in 1927 and 1928. Near Ingonish, Victoria County, Austin W. Cameron saw a male feeding a young bird barely able to fly on 17 July 1945; and W. Earl Godfrey collected a female on 24 June 1954 at Cape North with an egg in her oviduct. An early, half-completed nest was discovered by Harry Brennan near Springville, Pictou County, on 11 May 1967. It was placed close to the trunk of a small spruce in open woodland, about 3 m up, and the male was in full song nearby. On 17 May it contained one egg; three days later, it held a complete set of three eggs.

Range Breeds in the northern forests of the Northern Hemisphere; in North America from Alaska and northern Ungava, south to Nova Scotia, northern New Hampshire, central Manitoba and, in the western mountains, to New Mexico and California. Winters in southern parts of its breeding range and south to Pennsylvania, Iowa, Nebraska and occasionally further.

Remarks In my boyhood days these birds regularly came at the beginning of winter, having a prominence then like that held now by Evening Grosbeaks. I recall that they began to come less regularly and to dwindle in numbers about the time the Evening Grosbeaks began to appear more numerously and with increased regularity. Coincidental perhaps, but the two species do compete for the same winter foods. On 11 December 1968, for instance, three Pine Grosbeaks suddenly appeared in my back yard in Wolfville and joined a group of House Sparrows feeding on "scratch" (a mixture of grains) on the ground. At the same time, 25-30 Evening Grosbeaks were assembled on my food tray eating sunflower seeds, 5-6 m away. The Pine Grosbeaks soon left and were not seen again, but the Evening Grosbeaks continued to come daily and often. In former days, the Pine Grosbeaks would have fed at the food tray.

At the turn of the twentieth century, boys in Wolfville commonly pelted Pine Grosbeaks in the trees along Main Street with snowballs and catapults. It was customary to focus attention on the brightest rosy male and, because the birds were unwary, apparently having had little contact with humans, direct hits were frequently scored. Today, such senseless, open molestation of beautiful and harmless birds would not be tolerated.

The bright rosy males seen in the small winter flocks of Pine Grosbeaks are usually conspicuously outnumbered by the drabber females and immature males.