Birds of the Table Rocks

Black-headed Grosbeak

Black-headed Grosbeak

Pheucticus melanocephalus

Glenn and Martha Vargas
© 2002 California Academy of Sciences

As a male, I am a stocky bird with burnt orange chest, neck and rump. My head, tail and wings are black with white-wing patches. If female, I look like an overgrown sparrow, mostly brown with lighter belly and chest, and a bold white eyebrow. My bill is thick and conical for cracking open seeds.

I live in the Oak Savannah or the Mixed-woodland plant communities on Table Rocks.

My song sounds like a longwinded, drunken American Robin's song. Females make a cup nest and can lay three to four pale green or bluish eggs with brown markings.

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