Subject: [Tweeters] Question about Pine Grosbeak plumage
Date: Jan 19 09:08:23 2007
From: Rachel - RachelWL at msn.com


On 1/8, Penny Koyama and I saw the flock of Pine Grosbeaks at the Skagit
Game Range. We counted 13, though others later saw over 20 at the same
spot. They seemed to be in a mixture of plumages, but I have a question
about one of the birds we saw.

This bird had the color pattern of an adult male, but the head, back,
rump, and breast were not the usual pinky-red, but were instead a
brilliant, almost fluorescent orange. Beadle and Rising mention that
the subspecies montanus is "oranger" than other subspecies, and Clement,
et al. say that adult females can be "tinged" with orange, but none of
the references I checked shows or describes anything quite like this.
So, is this bird an unusually bright female or first-year male, or is it
an orange adult male? Do Pine Grosbeaks ever show diet-related color
variation the way House Finches do?

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelWL at msn.com