Pine Grosbeaks are Weird

White Wolf might not be the most productive site, but it always delivers in diversity. Today we finally got the poorly named male Pine Grosbeak. It’s not a real grosbeak and is more closely related to finches. We want to rename it the Big-billed Pine Finch, but we will just have to see what bird authorities say. I came up to the net and a male and female were right there next to each other. I made sure to put them in an order or my carabineer so that I would assuredly get the male. Pine Grosbeaks have this weird habit of chilling on the ground after they are released. It’s not like wing strain; they just sit there for some reason. The male sat there for a while and they foraged before flying off fine. We also got a female and a hatch year Pine Grosbeak that day.