I heard about a Black-headed Grosbeak visiting a feeder a couple of days ago. I was able to get out there this afternoon with Connor, and after an hour or so of waiting in the rain, we were rewarded by the arrival of the bird to the feeder. By that time we didn’t have too much time left before we needed to leave, but we did watch it come and go between the feeder and a nearby patch of salmonberry bushes.

My thanks to Cliff for letting me know about the odd bird visiting his feeder and the allowing us to hang out in his driveway to watch for it!

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First year male Black-headed Grosbeak seen on Hillcrest Drive, Sitka, Alaska 14 October 2007

This afternoon I was sitting where I could see out the back windows. Birds were flying by occasionally, and each time I checked closer, I saw a Varied Thrush. At one point I happened to look up and see a bird perched in an alder. It had a darkish head and orange brest, so my immediate thought was ‘another thrush’, but it only took a moment for reality to burst that thought, as I realized it did not have a dark band across its breast. My next thought was, ‘would you believe that?’ I had spent some time looking for Bramblings that were reported a couple of days ago. I was told they were pretty distinctive due to the orange coloring. I hadn’t bothered to look them up specifically, so when I saw this was an unusual bird with orange, I assumed that one of the Bramblings had showed up in my back yard. I grabbed my camera and looked out the back window but did not see it where it had been. I went outside and was able to relocate it just a few trees over. It moved around in that tree a couple of times, spent a little time preening, and appeared to eat something off of the alder branch, perhaps a small part of a branch or a bud? It was fairly high up in the tree, and I wanted to get a little better angle so I looked down to get a handle on something I was going to climb up, but when I looked back up it was gone. Shortly after that I heard a chickadee calling and several Varied Thrushes started coming up from the hill behind the house. I did not see the grosbeak again.

Black-headed Grosbeaks are considered Casual in Alaska. This is the second or third reported sighting in Sitka.

First year male Black-headed Grosbeak seen on Hillcrest Drive, Sitka, Alaska 14 October 2007

First year male Black-headed Grosbeak seen on Hillcrest Drive, Sitka, Alaska 14 October 2007

First year male Black-headed Grosbeak seen on Hillcrest Drive, Sitka, Alaska 14 October 2007

First year male Black-headed Grosbeak seen on Hillcrest Drive, Sitka, Alaska 14 October 2007

First year male Black-headed Grosbeak seen on Hillcrest Drive, Sitka, Alaska 14 October 2007