Black-headed Grosbeak

The black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) is a medium-sized bird in the Cardinalidae family. It is a migratory bird, with nesting grounds from southwestern British Columbia, through the western half of the United States, into central Mexico. It occurs as a vagrant further south in Central America.

It prefers to live in deciduous and mixed wooded areas. It likes to be in areas with large trees and thick bushes, such as patches of broadleaved trees and shrubs within conifer forests, including streamside corridors, river bottoms, lakeshores, wetlands, and suburban areas.

The black-headed grosbeak eats pine and other seeds, berries, insects and spiders, and fruit. During the summer, it mostly eats spiders, snails, and insects. It is one of the few birds, along with the black-backed oriole, that can safely eat the poisonous monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus).