Pine Grosbeak

Overview

Pine Grosbeak: Large, robust finch with red-washed black back, gray sides and undertail coverts, and pink-red rump and underparts. Head and face are pink-red; bill is heavy and black. Wings are black with two pale bars. Tail is black and slightly notched. Feeds on seeds, buds, fruits and insects.

Range and Habitat

Pine Grosbeak: Breeds from Alaska east to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, south in the western mountains to California and Arizona. Winters south to the Dakotas and New York. Prefers open coniferous forests and forest edges. Winters in mixed coniferous-deciduous forests; also found in shade trees in villages and in suburbs where it looks for food.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Pine Grosbeak was depicted on the 1986 series Canadian $1000 bill.
Pine grosbeaks are the largest of the northern finches.
These birds love pine trees. Even their genus name Pinicola is Latin for pine dweller.
A group of grosbeaks are collectively known as a "gross" of grosbeaks.

The Pine Grosbeak has a huge range of roughly 10,000,000 square kilometers. This bird can be found in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Mongolia, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and vagrant populations exist in Europe and the Caribbean. Its preferred habitat includes forests, shrubland and arable or pasturelands. The global population of this bird is estimated to be around 4,400,000 individual birds. Currently, it is not believed that the population trends for this species will soon approach the minimum levels that could suggest a potential decline in population. Due to this, population trends for the Pine Grosbeak have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.