Outdoors  

Rose-breasted Grosbeak dresses in formal attire

My wife, Lin, and I came to live in this old Hattiesburg house we call Ronnalin almost 25 years ago this spring.

One of the first things we did was hang some sunflower-seed feeders. We soon had redbirds and squirrels, and an occasional goldfinch outside our dining room window.

On a chilly morning I took a walk around our new property. It's not a huge yard, and I didn't tarry, but when I finished my circuit I found a bird lying face-down on the drive near the feeders. It was a large, coal-black bird with white markings - head tucked forward, wings stretched in a last effort.

I knelt and saw the neck had been neatly severed, the mark of a feathered assassin. I scanned the pecans for the raptor whose hunt I had interrupted, but nothing moved in the trees. No bird called. I should have noticed the preternatural silence.

I realized I didn't know what bird had died here.

But when I turned the bird over it was instantly transformed from a black bird into a beautiful Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I had never seen one, but my thrill of a new life bird was swamped in the feeling of loss for such a beautiful creature.

There has been a flood of Rose-breasted Grosbeak reports in Mississippi this spring. I've gotten messages from all over.

Yes, the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak does have a rose-colored breast. It looks more like an ascot to me. The female looks like a giant, heavily striped sparrow with conspicuous white eyebrow stripe. First-fall males can cause confusion in migration. They have a buffy vest that many mistake for the orange of their western cousin, the Black-headed Grosbeak.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks don't breed in Mississippi but they pass through the state twice a year during migration. They spend the winter in Central and South America. They breed in cooler places than Mississippi, generally north of Tennessee and east of the Rockies. On the western edge of their range they may cross-breed with Black-headed Grosbeaks, providing challenges in identification.

They like deciduous or mixed forests and are known for their huge appetites for potato beetles and gypsy moths. In migration they show a taste for sweets - mulberries in spring and sugar hackberries in fall for extra calories needed for migration.

Although considered fairly common, Rose-breasteds are not always easy to spot. They like to sit high in tree canopies, and are patient. They can be still for long times.

When I was a fledgling bird guide, I spent many hours honing my ability to point out birds to other people. One day I found a male Rose-breasted perched 20 yards off the path in the Dauphin Island Sanctuary. I showed that bird to maybe forty people over the hour that he sat perfectly still. One by one birders followed my directions with puzzled faces until they exclaimed, "There he is!"

One poor guy struggled for more than five minutes before he finally said, "Son, would you just show me a picture of the bird in that book of yours. All I want is to walk to the darn beach."

Ronnie Blackwell is a writer and bird watcher living in Hattiesburg. E-mail him at blackwellr@comcast.net