Day 202: My favorite people are back, and I've just laid in another 40-pound bag of black-oil sunflower seed to meet the demand. They know they've got a good thing going here, because I would go hungry before I'd neglect my Porch Parrots.
Coccothraustes vespertinus is a robin-sized bird which some say looks like a Goldfinch on steroids. The male is brilliant yellow with white wing bars, black primaries and tail. A yellow "eyebrow" marks a dark head with a blaze of color, but in the breeding months, nothing is as striking as the massive bill which changes from greyish to chartreuse. Female Evening Grosbeaks are marked similarly, but their overall body color is a green-tinged grey. Their call is a single, plaintive note inflected on the end: "CHURP?" sometimes burred slightly as if said with a Scottish accent.
These beautiful migrants have long memories and an unerring sense of direction. Once they have marked your feeders on their mental maps, you'll find it hard to keep up with their appetites without taking out a mortgage on your home.
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