About a week ago I posted about two Grosbeaks at my feeder - one male Rose Breasted Grosbeak and another that appeared just odd to me - much like a Rose Breasted but with yellow on the chest, especially near the wings. The male has stayed; the odd one has not returned to the feeder.
I just found a site that has a really wonderful set of photos and explanations for ages of Rose Breasted Grosbeaks. Here's a link.
http://www.migrationresearch.org/mbo/id/rbgr.html#symb
I really believe that the "odd" bird was almost exactly like the AHY (after hatch year) photo of the "especially dark" male grosbeak. The breast is much more orange in color than yellow - but that is similar to what I saw, and I really believe that the "odd bird" was like this - an AHY male with no bright rose patch, but a larger orange-ish mark.
The current bird is a more typical AHY male I believe - he still has a stripe on his head and just a little brown on his back and wings. He has a nicely rose-colored breast, however!
Joanne
Joanne Howl, DVM
<jovet...>
West River, MD
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