One of the best things about feeding the birds is seeing a new bird you have never seen before. We've seen grosbeaks like blue grosbeaks and cardinals (which are a type of grosbeak) but this is the first rose breasted grosbeak we have seen. It's not a surprise that we haven't seen them before since they are migrating north to their summer homes. This little family of grosbeaks have been staying in our neighborhood for about a week and seem to love black oil sunflower seed. In fact they've cleaned me out of food twice in 7 days. I've counted four males and one female at the feeders at the same time so there are at least five grosbeaks in this little clan.I struggled for several days to get a good picture of them. Every time I got close enough to get a good shot I scared them away. I finally managed a few decent, but not spectacular pictures.
This picture is probably one of the best. I was able to get three of the males in the same shot. Two are on the pole and feeder in the back and the other is on the closet feeder. I never managed to get a picture of the female, she must be camera shy.
This picture was taken from a distance in the morning light.
Here is a cropped shot for a better view. If you would like to see more rose breasted grosbeaks go visit Leave Me Alone, I'm Digging. David, over in North Carolina, had some rose breasted grosbeaks visiting him a few days ago.
