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 Grosbeak are so thinly constructed that eggs often can be seen from below through the nest.
- The males of the Rose-breasted share equally in incubating eggs and feeding young, despite having a much showier plumage than their respective females.
- The Rose-breasted Grosbeak have unusual diets for birds with such a big seed eating beak. Throughout most of the year, over half of their diet is made up of insects. Their huge beaks allow them to eat large grasshoppers, crickets and other insects that have tough exoskeletons