Description

Adult male Evening Grosbeak flew into my yard on Thanksgiving morning while we were settled in to watch the parade, Which means my husband was watching the TV while I watched the yard/feeders for birds. Suddenly it landed on a bare tree, then flew over to a Box Elder laden with seeds and began eating them. I grabbed my camera while shouting EVENING GROSBEAK!!!! numerous times. Then it flew over the Larch tree on which feeders hang, then onto the top of a squirrel proof feeder, finally landing on the seed catch basket I added to a tube feeder. It stayed and munched down sunflower seeds for 20+ minutes before it flew onto a nearby pear tree and preened before it departed. WOW! To date (12/27/2020) this is the ONLY Madison, Wisconsin Evening Grosbeak reported to eBird this Year. It is also one of only 4 reported sightings for the entire County this year (2 were heard only – one of those by several birders together while doing a hawk-watch). These are only photos for any Dane County sightings. ***Interestingly a male was reported about 20 miles west of my house the following morning at a feeder in Jefferson County… I wonder if the same bird?

Category

Finches

Species

• Evening Grosbeak

Tags

• finch
• irruption
• eating
• evening grosbeak
• Wisconsin
• Madison WI