I feed the birds all winter long. Back on February 6th, I was surprised to see a couple of shy Pine Grosbeaks (photo above) at the feeder. Forty years ago, occasionally through the winter, we would see a cluster of Evening Grosbeaks (a yellow cousin of the Pine Grosbeaks) feeding at the feeder, but over the decade, they have completely disappeared.
I don’t remember ever seeing any Pine Grosbeaks coming to the feeder, so I was quite excited to see them. The pair of Pine Grosbeaks, appreciated a good thing when they saw it, and so the two would visit the feeder almost daily for sunflower seeds. Grosbeaks have a well designed beak for sunflower seeds.
I was very surprised a couple of days ago after our snowfall, when I walked out to feed the birds, to see a group of about ten Pine Grosbeaks all fluttering around, snatching the sunflower seeds out of the feeder. Seeing all of the Grosbeaks made me wonder about why they all suddenly appeared. Did the original two, somehow tell them about the availability of sunflower seeds at our house? How did the others find out about them?
I have noticed the same sort of sudden appearance happen with other birds. Maybe it is just a fluke, but it always seems to me that they are somehow communicating the location of food to others of their species.
Below is a photo taken of the latest gathering of Pine Grosbeaks. There are six of them in the photo, can you see them all? The one with the reddish head is a male.
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