Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks Are May Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar

Summary: Rose-breasted grosbeaks are May birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar by which the National Audubon Society attracts annual attention to vulnerable birds.

Male, female and young rose-breasted grosbeaks appear on No. 26 Plate CXXVII (127) of The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 2, by John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rose-breasted grosbeaks are May birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar for the National Audubon Society attracting annual attention to vulnerable birds abiding in, or accessing from Canada and Mexico, the United States.

Springtime through summertime backyard feeders bear buds, fruits and seeds that bring in edible arthropods (from Greek ἄρθρον, “joint” and πούς, “foot”) and arthropod-battling rose-breasted grosbeaks. Rose-breasted grosbeaks (from French gros, “big” and bec, “beak”) come to southern Canada and northeastern United States from Caribbean, Central American and northern South American woodlands. They dwell in old orchards, open woods, parks, scrublands and shrublands near streams and with deciduous and mixed woodland edges during breeding-season months May through July.

Rose-breasted grosbeak fathers-to-be and mothers-to-be establish cup or platform nests in twig forks at 4- to 20-foot (1.219- to 6.096-meter) heights above shrub or tree bases.

Both parents-to-be fashion their loose, open nests of coarse grasses, decayed leaves, small twigs and weed stems with comfortable linings of fine hair, rootlets and twigs.

Physically and sexually mature one-, one-plus-year-old female rose-breasted grosbeaks annually gestate each breeding season one 2- to 5-egg brood and then another 2- to 5-egg clutch. The nest held on a high branch or fork of a deciduous shrub or tree has blue-green to blue-white, semi-glossy, smooth, sub-elliptical to short sub-elliptical eggs. Twenty-five- by 18-millimeter (0.98- by 0.71-inch) eggs include brown- to purple-red blotches, speckles and spots whose density increases as they itinerate from narrow to larger ends.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks, May birds journeying from Caribbean, Central and South America to Canada and the United States, join 11 vulnerable birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar.

Thirteen-year lifespans amid migratory flocks kindle 12- to 14-day incubations by, and 2-week dependencies of hatchlings and nestlings and 3-week dependencies of fledglings upon, both parents.

Rose-breasted grosbeak nestlings live as altricial (helpless, from Latin altrix, “nourisher”) hatchlings and look downy-white apart gray-down heads, orange skin, orange-red mouths and yellow gape flanges. They muster feathered bodies within 9 to 12 days, when they move out of their nest as semi-independent fledglings that meet their parents for their meals. They need three post-fledging weeks of parent-provided arthropods, buds, fruits and seeds before they number among five-, five-plus-week-old immature but independent orange- to rosy-breasted rose-breasted grosbeaks.

The 2022 Audubon calendar offers rose-breasted grosbeaks as May birds, month when they most obviously occupy Canadian and Unitedstatesian orchards, parks, scrublands, shrublands and woodlands each year.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks, Pheucticus ludovicianus (from Greek φευκτικός, “shy” and φεύγω, “to flee” and Latin ludovicianus, “Louisianan”) scientifically, possess as females large, pink bills and thick-streaked underparts.

Breeding versus non-breeding males quarter black heads and backs, rose-red breasts, white bellies, white-patched wings, white rumps and white-cornered tails versus brown-patched backs and streaked underparts. Physical and sexual maturity renders female and male rose-breasted grosbeaks with 8-inch (20-centimeter-) long bodies, 12.5-inch (32-centimeter) wingspans and 1.25- to 2-ounce (35- to 55-gram) weights. Rose-breasted grosbeaks, studied by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), sound airy vree flight calls; explosive, high, sharp eeuk and sink calls; flute-like warbled songs.

The 2022 Audubon calendar tenders rose-breasted grosbeaks arriving from the Caribbean, Central and South American tropics a temperate-zone welcome as among North America’s breeding May birds.

Approximate Range/Distribution Map of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) shows summer-only range (yellow), winter-only range (blue), year-round range (green) and areas passed through during migratory activity (orange): Ken Thomas, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Male, female and young rose-breasted grosbeaks appear on No. 26 Plate CXXVII (127) of The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 2, by John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:127_Rose-breasted_Grosbeak.jpg; No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/search/searchterm/V.02/field/source/mode/all/conn/and/order/file/page/1 (main page); No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/id/131/rec/29 (specific image URL)

Approximate Range/Distribution Map of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) shows summer-only range (yellow), winter-only range (blue), year-round range (green) and areas passed through during migratory activity (orange): Ken Thomas, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rose-breasted_Grosbeak-rangemap.gif

For further information:

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Bull, John; and John Farrand, Jr. 1997. "Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus." Page 693. In: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region. Revised by John Farrand, Jr. Second edition. A Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; and Toronto [Ontario, Canada]: Random House of Canada Limited.

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Howell, Catherine Herbert (Writer); and Mary B. Dickinson (Editor). 1999. "Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus." Pages 428-429. In: Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Third Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic Society.

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