I, too, observed quite a few what I took to be grosbeak birds-of-the-year "hanging out together" starting about 3 weeks ago, but only a couple of them now. We had up to 7 of them and all mostly looking like females. Had up to three on a large tube feeder at the same time, with several on the ground below. One big clue we had of their presence were the many grosbeaks calling. The ones that had nests on and around the property mostly sang during the prime nesting time, and called only occasionally.

May all your birds be identified,
Denis DeSilvis
avnacrs4birds at outlook.com

Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Dennis Paulson<mailto:dennispaulson at comcast.net>
Sent: ?9/?1/?2013 10:24 AM
To: TWEETERS tweeters<mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Tweeters] social Black-headed Grosbeaks

I didn't know before this fall that Black-headed Grosbeaks could be so social. We have four of them coming to our feeders on a daily basis, and it's obvious they are hanging out together, as they often come as a group, and they are completely tolerant of each other, sometimes all on the same feeder. They are all presumably birds of the year, and I suppose it is even possible they are siblings, although the species doesn't breed right around our yard, and these birds first appeared on Aug 17, quite a while after I would have thought fledging took place and more like fall migration. The birds vary only slightly, mostly in brightness of the orange underparts, and the literature says that first-winter males average brighter than females, so I suppose we have both sexes.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle, WA
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