Blue Grosbeak

Blue Grosbeak Passerina caerulea Other names for the Blue Grosbeak are: Guiraca is a Native Mexican and South American name and Caerulea is from the Latin for 'blue'

Male Blue Grosbeaks get their striking spring plumage from feather wear. While Blue Grosbeaks spend their winter in the South, the brown feather tips rub off leaving the crystal blue plumage when arriving on their breeding grounds.

The average size of the Blue Grosbeak as an adult is slightly larger than a House Sparrow at about seven inches in length.

The male Blue Grosbeak has coloring of a sparkling dark blue with black wings and two reddish brown wing stripes and a thick, dark colored beak. The female Blue Grosbeak has a color of yellow brown with two tan wing bars. Both the female and male Blue Grosbeak have a dark thick conical beak, characteristic to grosbeaks.

The Blue Grosbeak's head is big with a short neck and a powerful body. Their legs are of average size and covered with a few scales on its ankle and toes. Their claws appear narrow and arched and the bird's feet are dusky colored. The feathers of the bird are soft and its tail is rather long and notched. The irises of a Blue Grosbeak are brown. The adult female Blue Grosbeak has brown colored feet and she is smaller than the male. A young Blue Grosbeak when fully fledged has similar markings of the adult female bird.

The Blue Grosbeaks prefer a habitat in bushes by damp fields and underbrush along the roadside as well as open woodlands in the southern half of the United States. Birders observe the Blue Grosbeak from Texas to New Jersey up the Mississippi River to Memphis and in the southern Rocky Mountains.

In the West the Blue Grosbeak breeds from California to Colorado. In the midwestern states of Missouri and Illinois the bird breeds and on the east coast it breeds in New Jersey. It arrives in the southern parts of Louisiana about March fifteenth. Then the birds scatter throughout Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas where they breed. In Florida the Blue Grosbeak is a summer resident and a casual winter resident in the state.

The Blue Grosbeak's nest is a cup shaped nest constructed of grass or hair, weed stems, and leaves. The bird constructs its nest in a vertical fork of a small bush, or attaches it to the tall blades of heavy grass. The nest builders always hide the nest in a clump of weeds or vine tangle or in a tree. This bird seldom places its nest more than a few feet from the ground, yet it will fly to the tops of the tallest trees, to sing, during the spring and summer.

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