Rose-breasted Grosbeak in song – Point Loma

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2015] – Black-headed Grosbeaks travel through San Diego County on migration quite early in the year and I have only seen one here on the coast in recent days. So a grosbeak in full song at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma today 13 May 2015 caught my attention as worth investigating. After locating the eucalyptus tree it was singing from, and carefully searching the canopy, I eventually spied this first summer male Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticis ludovicianus singing away heartily. It moved off pretty quickly but I caught up with it a couple more times again by detecting the song or call. To my ear the “spik” call of Rose-breasted Grosbeak sounds slightly more piercing, or squeaky, compared to the call of Black-headed Grosbeak. This individual appears to be a second year (SY) male retaining lots of worn looking very faded brown wing feathers. The contrasting greater secondary coverts and one or two tertials on each wing are freshly replaced looking richly black with tidy white spotted tips.