The Black-headed Grosbeak is a chunky, distinctive songbird found throughout western North America. The male's black head and contrasting black and white wings set off a bright cinnamon nape, back, and underside. The center of his belly shades to lemon yellow, then becomes white on the lower belly and undertail. The female Black-headed Grosbeak lacks the male's dark head and is patterned in quieter shades of buff and brown, with fine striping along her flanks. Both sexes have yellow wing linings that are most conspicuous in flight, and the heavy, conical bill for which the species is named. That “gros” (big) beak is a notable feature of the Black-headed Grosbeak's genus, which includes its eastern relative, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

While the Black-headed Grosbeak's big beak easily cracks large seeds and hard-bodied insect prey, it also helps this bird secure a more unorthodox food.

A Taste for Toxins

Many Black-headed Grosbeaks migrate to the forests of central Mexico for the winter, where huge roosts of migratory monarch butterflies also gather.  The Black-headed Grosbeak is one of only a few species that can consume these butterflies, which are poisonous to most birds due to the high levels of toxins in their milkweed diet. Even with this relative immunity, the Black-headed Grosbeak can only feed on monarchs in roughly 8-day cycles, allowing their bodies to flush out the toxins in between bouts of feasting.

The Black-headed Grosbeak's tuneful song is similar to that of its close relative, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a lilting round of clear whistled notes, trills, and warbles. Both males and females sing, although the female performs a simpler version of the song.

Listen here:

This bird's call is a sharp, somewhat squeaky chip note:

Cooperative Co-parenting

Male Black-headed Grosbeaks return to the nesting grounds first, then court newly-arriving females with loud song and low courtship flights that show off their strikingly-patterned, black-and-white wing and tail feathers.

Newly-formed pairs call back and forth to each other as they forage, continuing to stay in close contact as the female selects a nest location in a small, dense tree or bush, usually near a stream. Here she builds a shallow cup nest of twigs, grasses, needles, and bark, lined with finer materials such as rootlets and hair. She lays a clutch of 2-5 pale blue-green spotted eggs, which she and her mate take turns incubating, often singing to each other from the nest and as they exchange shifts. The clutch hatches after roughly two weeks, and both parents keep busy supplying food to their voracious young. The hatchlings fledge after 10-14 days but remain in the vicinity as their parents continue to care for them. In a few days, the young grosbeaks are fully able to fly and continue to follow their parents while begging for food.  

A Balanced Diet

The Black-headed Grosbeak dines on an almost even mixture of animal and plant matter, which it plucks from leaves and branches as it moves through the foliage. Like many songbirds, it consumes a higher proportion of insects and invertebrates during the breeding season, when the extra protein is needed to sustain nesting adults and growing chicks. This grosbeak also feeds on fruits, seeds, and plant buds, easily cracking open larger food items with its large, sturdy bill. The Black-headed Grosbeak will also visit backyard bird feeders for seeds, fruit, and jelly, often alongside other species such as the Spotted Towhee and Dark-eyed Junco.

This “western” grosbeak breeds in a wide variety of forest and edge habitats from the Pacific coast to the middle of the Great Plains, and from southwestern Canada to the mountains of central Mexico. Its wintering habitats are similar. Black-headed Grosbeaks from the northern part of their range migrate to winter in central Mexico, while more southern populations remain largely in place.

The Black-headed Grosbeak will sometimes hybridize with the closely-related Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the eastern edge of the Great Plains, where the two species' ranges overlap. This phenomenon can sometimes be observed where other closely-related species range's meet, as in the case of Lazuli and Indigo Buntings and Bullock's and Baltimore Orioles. In each of these cases, the presence of hybrids does not signal the formation of a new species, as the majority of each of the “parent” species remains distinct due to isolating mechanisms ranging from the physical (song, plumage) to the molecular level.

While the Black-headed Grosbeak is an adaptable bird that can thrive in many types of habitats, including parks and backyards with sufficient cover for nesting, it still faces challenges from habitat loss due to urbanization and climate change. This species also faces the same threats as other migratory birds, such as predation by outdoor cats and fatal collisions with windows, vehicles, and buildings.

ABC has a number of programs in place to reduce these threats, including our Cats Indoors program, which encourages pet owners to keep cats and birds safe, and our Glass Collisions program, which offers solutions to this ongoing issue. In addition, ABC is involved in a number of large-scale conservation initiatives to protect and recover migratory bird habitat on breeding and wintering grounds, including BirdScapes, Joint Ventures, and Southern Wings.

Policies enacted by the U.S. Congress and federal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have a huge impact on migratory birds. You can help shape these rules for the better by telling lawmakers to prioritize birds, bird habitat, and bird-friendly measures. To get started, visit ABC's Action Center.

Living a bird-friendly life can have an immediate impact on migratory birds in the United States. Doing so can be as easy as adding native plants to your garden, avoiding pesticides, and keeping cats indoors. To learn more, visit our Bird-Friendly Life page.

American Bird Conservancy and our Migratory Bird Joint Venture partners have improved conservation management on more than 8.5 million acres of U.S. bird habitat — an area larger than the state of Maryland — over the last ten years. That's not all: With the help of international partners, we've established a network of more than 100 areas of priority bird habitat across the Americas, helping to ensure that birds' needs are met during all stages of their lifecycles. These are monumental undertakings, requiring the support of many, and you can help by making a gift today.