Fun Facts About Grosbeaks
- The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak shares incubation duties with the female and is known to even sing while sitting on the nest.
- The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is beneficial to farmers, consuming many potato beetles and weed seeds.
- Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are known for singing on moonlit nights, sometimes all night, but never very loudly.
- The nests of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are commonly parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird, possibly due to the singing done by both the male and female as they construct the nest.
- Rose-breasted Grosbeaks’ preferred feeder items are sunflower, safflower and peanuts
- The nests of the Rose-breasted are so thinly constructed that eggs often can be seen from below through the nest.
- The males of both the Rose-breasted and Black-headed Grosbeak share equally in incubating eggs and feeding young, despite having a much showier plumage than their respective females.
- Throughout most of the year, over half of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak diet is made up of insects. Their huge beaks allows them to eat large grasshoppers, crickets and other insects that have tough exoskeletons.