Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 19
Evening Grosbeak
Clark, Edward Brayton., 1901
Bird

Evening Grosbeak

Hesperiphona vespertina
Bird
Unexpected now
Occasional. Never better than a coin toss here in any week of the year.
Field marks
A heavy-bodied finch with a huge pale bill. The male is dusky yellow with a black cap and bold white wing patches; the whole bird looks like it was assembled from parts of larger birds.
Male & female
Females are soft grey with a yellow wash on the neck and the same white in the wing.
Voice
A loud, ringing 'cleer' or 'peer' that carries far, and a sparrow-like chirp. No real song; it has the bill of an opera singer and the repertoire of a doorbell.
Diet
Big seeds (maple, ash, box elder), buds, and spruce budworm in outbreak years. At feeders, sunflower seeds by the pound: a flock can go through a bag in a morning.
Habitat
Conifer and mixed forest; wanders the continent in winter looking for seed crops.
Nesting
A loose cup high in a conifer; 3–4 eggs.
Size
6½–8½ in long, 2–2½ oz: about a tennis ball, wearing a bill the size of its self-regard.

Nomadic. Flocks appear for a few weeks and vanish. The range model calls it very rare at the creek at this season, so repeated calls would be a genuine record.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 12 calls on 2 days, first Oct 29, last Oct 31

2300:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 1 calls08:00 — 3 calls09:00 — 2 calls910:00 — 1 calls11:00 — 1 calls12:00 — 0 calls1213:00 — 0 calls14:00 — 0 calls15:00 — 1 calls1516:00 — 2 calls17:00 — 1 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 0 calls20:00 — 0 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
49Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 0 callsOct 29 — 9 callsOct 30 — 0 callsOct 31 — 3 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 29 8:44 am · 99% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 29 4:49 pm · 95% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 29 10:17 am · 95% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 29 9:42 am · 89% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

The evening grosbeak is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae found in North America.
From Wikipedia, "Evening grosbeak", CC BY-SA 4.0.