The Pine Grosbeak is the largest of the northern "winter finches," a big, plump, unhurried bird with a short, stubby, rounded bill and two white wing bars. Males are washed a soft rosy-red, females and young a grayish body with a warm golden-olive head, and both move slowly and deliberately, so tame and unafraid that they sometimes earn the folk name "mope." Their calls are sweet, whistled notes, and a feeding flock quietly working a fruit tree can be surprisingly easy to approach.
A bird of the boreal and subalpine conifer forests, the Pine Grosbeak comes to Michigan only in winter, and only in some winters — like other winter finches it is irruptive, moving south in numbers when northern food crops fail and staying away when they are good. When they do arrive, they feed on buds, seeds, and especially the persistent fruit of crabapples, mountain-ash, and other trees, and will visit feeders for sunflower seed. A flock of rosy Pine Grosbeaks in a snowy fruit tree is one of the loveliest sights of a Michigan winter.
Feeds on buds, seeds, and fruit, using its stout bill to crush seeds and pluck buds, and in winter relies heavily on the persistent fruit of crabapple, mountain-ash, and similar trees. At feeders it takes sunflower seed, foraging slowly and often allowing a close approach.
Like other winter finches they are irruptive, moving south into Michigan when the northern seed and fruit crops fail and remaining north when food is plentiful. As a result they are abundant some winters and absent in others.
It is a large, plump finch with a short, stubby bill and two white wing bars. Males are rosy-red; females and young are gray-bodied with a golden-olive head. Their slow, tame behavior is also a clue.
Buds, seeds, and especially persistent fruit such as crabapples and mountain-ash berries, and they will come to feeders for sunflower seed. A flock quietly feeding in a fruit tree can often be approached closely.
Females and immature males are gray with a russet or mustard-orange head and rump, and young males keep that plumage through their first full year. Rosy-red birds are adult males, usually a minority in any winter flock.
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