Black-headed grosbeak

[ronwoodcraft]

Had a pair of these hanging around today, and looks like they are putting a nest together somewhere close. This is the male and he was singing his heart out.

 

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[kcm]

We get a pair of Grosbeaks now and then, but they never seem to stick around for very long. I think the Bluejays chase them away - like they chase every other living thing away, EXCEPT for the dad burn Barn Swallows!!

 

[smokeythecat]

Was he singing "Love Me Tender?"

 

[Oregon Viking]

Great pics!

 

[Fletch88]

awesome pics. I had a blue grosbeak a couple years ago. Such a beautiful bird!

 

[Old Dude]

I bet those beaks are tough as nails! Their color reminds me of an oriole. Great depth of field. Are you using Aperture Priority?

 

[ronwoodcraft]

awesome pics. I had a blue grosbeak a couple years ago. Such a beautiful bird!

Thanks Fletch, We don't have the Blue grosbeaks here but wish we did.

 

[kcm]

Ours are the Pine Grosbeaks. One time we had 3 females and 1 male here. There were probably more, but the Grosbeaks don't usually like to be caught in the open around these parts.

 

[ronwoodcraft]

I bet those beaks are tough as nails! Their color reminds me of an oriole. Great depth of field. Are you using Aperture Priority?

Thanks OD.....No, I use manual mode. These were at F6.3.......I like to have shutter speed of 1/1000 or faster with the 400mm lens to avoid camera shake, and in order to do that it requires a shallow depth of field, or high ISO, or both depending on lighting conditions. I like to use the lowest ISO I can get away with to keep noise levels down, which also means the aperture is almost wide open........Having said all that, the Owl pictures I got the other day were at f6.3 and ISO 3200. The Canon 5D III I use works real well with low noise at High ISO's which is one reason I got this camera. With my old Canon rebel I wouldn't have even tried in those low light conditions. Anything over ISO400 had very noisy (grainy) images.

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Ours are the Pine Grosbeaks. One time we had 3 females and 1 male here. There were probably more, but the Grosbeaks don't usually like to be caught in the open around these parts.

Yeah, I had a pair of these Black-headed ones that would use my suet feeders in Oregon, and they were real skittish. It surprised me these weren't as afraid, but I still had a hard time getting close enough for pics.......We also had evening grosbeaks in Oregon that would travel in big flocks, and they were pretty tame. They would come in and empty all the feeders in a short time.

 

[old digger]

Pretty Birdie! In the years that I have lived here I have seen maybe four, and two of them I found dead.

 

[austin]

Awesome bird and one more that we don't have here in Paradise or Hell, depending on how you look at it...

 

[BearCreek]

I've never seen one of those before. Your pictures are beautiful!