Cardinals, Piranga Tanagers and Allies

Summer Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Western Tanager

Northern Cardinal

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Summer Tanager

Piranga rubra
Perhaps the most celebrated Summer Tanager to appear in our area was the one the cat got – not long after Gerhard Leubner banded it.Leubner caught the bird, a first-year male, in a mist net in his Irondequoit backyard on 7 May 1960. It was only our second record of this rare visitor from the south. “After being carefully studied and photographed by Leubner, Robert Dobson and Leo Tanghe, it was released,” John Brown reported. (BA, 12 May 1960) Then, on 11 May “boys in the Leubners’ neighborhood in Upland Drive brought him the body of the bird which had apparently been killed by a cat. A small boy had taken it from the cat and buried it, later telling a friend he had buried a bird with a band on its leg. The friend told his parents, the bird was exhumed and taken back to Leubner. Last night it was left at the Museum. . .” Background
This colorful Neotropical migrant nests across the southern U.S. from California to Florida, and in the east as far north as Illinois, southern Ohio and southern Delaware. Eastern birds frequent open deciduous forests, often near gaps and edges, notes W. Douglas Robinson in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. It hawks bees and wasps in flight, then carries them back to its perch where it slams its prey repeatedly against the branch until dead. The stinger is removed by wiping the bee or wasp on the branch before eating it. Declining along the edges of its range in the east. It has expanded its range in some parts of the southwest, but has declined severely in California and lower Colorado River valley where destruction of riparian habitat is rampant. Overall breeding populations appear to have remained generally stable in recent years, but loss of tropical forests on its wintering grounds may also affect its numbers. (BNA 248: 1-3, 5, 16)
Status The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as an occasional, very rare spring visitant and a casual, very rare fall visitant.
Occurrences
Only 17 records, all but one in April or May. Our first record, according to Edson, was a female observed 19 May 1947 at Highland Park by Dr. Elisha Atkins. “At that time Dr. Atkins was doing research work for Strong Memorial Hospital but had resided for some time in the normal range of this tanager and was well acquainted with it.” (WBR, 26 May 1947; 16 May 1960) Leubner’s banded bird on 7 May 1960 at Irondequoit (KB 10: 61) A female 19 May 1969 (Listman) at Manitou. (KB 19:151) 4. Another 22 April 1973 stopped by the woods along East Manitou Road near the Hawk Lookout at a particularly opportune time. A Genesee Ornithological Society field trip was scheduled there that day, and the participants were able to study it “intermittently over a period of several hours,” Laura Moon reported. It was flycatching from the trees from one side of the road to the other, and later dropped to some very low shrubs at eye level in an adjacent field. It was mostly red except for bright olive green on the tail, wing and across the lower abdomen, which made for an interesting contrast. (GOS, June 1973) 5. A female on 21 September 1973 (Lloyd) at Webster. (KB 24:18) 6. A male on 21-23 May 1976 at Kendall. (KB 26: 160) 7. A female on 28 May 1978 (Listman, mob) at Braddock Bay. (KB 28:172) 8. A male on 18 May 1980 at Letchworth SP. (KB 30:168) Paul Conklin and Douglas Bassett observed it “near the fountain at the Glen Iris Inn.” (Fox, p. 90) 9. A molting male on 5 May 1981 (Reister, Steinhauser, Davids, Griffith) at Braddock Bay. (KB 31:165) 10. One on 13 May 1983 (Reister, Symonds, et al) at Island Cottage. (KB 33:191) 11. One on 22 May 1983 (Will, Mason) at Honeoye. (KB 33:191) 12. One on 12 May 1984 (Conklin) at Island Cottage. (KB 34:180) 13. Two on 21 May 1988 (D. and D. Traver) at Webster. (KB 38:197) 14. A male on 12-21 May 1997 (Tydings, mob) at Irondequoit (KB 47:204) “visiting a suet/seed-mix feeder at a very regular 5-10 minutes feeding followed by almost exactly 20 minutes absence from early morning to late evening…The homeowners were kind enough to allow visitors on the 16th and 18th, when nearly 50 local and more distant birders stopped by for excellent views and photos.” (GOS, July/Aug 1997) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 50:21) 15. Three – two females and a molting male – on 16 May 1997 on Oxbow Lane near Nations Road, observed and well described by D. Van Horn from as close as 40 feet. (GOS, April 1998; Fox, p. 90) 16. One banded on 23 May 2002 (BBBO) at Manitou. (KB 52:244) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 54: 299) 17. An adult male on 9 May 2007 (D. Tetlow) west spit, Braddock Bay. (LG, July/August 2007)

Scarlet Tanager

Piranga olivacea
Among the exhibits at the Rochester Museum & Science Center is a large glass dome with stuffed bird specimens inside. It is a bit of “bird parlor décor” – purchased in Rochester in 1877 – when a great many birds were shot to “satisfy the collecting mania of the time while supplying objects with which to decorate the house.” Among the specimens preserved inside the dome are two male Scarlet Tanagers. (Marcotte, p. 18) That is hardly surprising. Few songbirds can match the Scarlet Tanager for sheer, stunning color.Indeed, more than a century later, on 16 June 1990, a trio of birders walked along the wet woodlands that straddle Norway Road just north of West Ridge Road. All around, gypsy moth caterpillars were hungrily defoliating the trees. So many, in fact, that you could hear the gnawing. But the birds loved it. Amid the carnage, a male Scarlet Tanager, truly vibrant, flew into an oak where its nest had been placed overhanging the road. Binoculars were quickly replaced as the birders eagerly took aim – with cameras, not guns.
Background
The breeding range of this strikingly colorful bird corresponds closely to the boundaries of the eastern deciduous forest where, “despite its brilliant coloration it is often overlooked because of its unobtrusive and secretive behavior,” notes Thomas B. Mowbray in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. “Fortunately its hoarse, burry song and frequently uttered Chip-Churr calls are quite distinctive and alert us to its presence high in the canopy.” This neotropical migrant is a bird of the forest interior, suffering high rates of predation and brood parasitism, or vacating areas altogether, when fragmentation leaves only small woodlots. “In such landscapes where the forest is highly fragmented, the species appears to exist as a dynamic mosaic of source and sink populations.” BBS data since 1966 indicate a relatively stable population overall, increasing in some regions, decreasing in others. However, “it remains unclear whether BBS surveyors are often recording unmated males in forest fragments too small for breeding territories . . . and breeding pairs in woodlots whose nests are unlikely to produce successful broods because of nest predation and brood parasitism.” (BNA 479: 1-2, 20-21)
Local history
“I have seen as many as 12 or 15 male tanagers in an open plowed field during the first part of May, when they are feeding on May beetles and their larvae,” Eaton (1914) observed. He listed it as a fairly common summer resident in Wayne County, but uncommon in Monroe and Livingston, and a common transient visitor in Monroe. (Eaton II: 338, I: county charts) R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated single birds were the norm, with a maximum count of seven, on dates ranging from 7 May to 12 October.When Leo Tanghe examined 1,665 outings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951-1954, this species was reported 200 times, usually no more than 1-3 at a time, with 62 of the sightings during the third week of May. (KB 5: 69: 7A-7B)In 1953, Tanghe considered this an uncommon breeding bird in the Rochester area, specifically listing the Burroughs-Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary and Bushnell’s Basin as nesting locations. (GOS, May/August 1953) Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, fairly common summer resident and a casual, very rare winter visitant.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a regular common summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 1 May (1985) to 21 May, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 7-13 May. Subsequently, one on 19 April 1994 (Liguori) at Braddock Bay (addendum to May noteworthies) was earlier. (GOS, July 1994) Also early: 29 April 2004. (LG, June 2004)
Spring maxima: 22 on 23 May 1987 (Bassett, Conklin) at Letchworth SP. (GOS, July 1987) 20 on 25 May 1996 (mob) at several locations. (GOS, July/August 1996)
Summer/breeding status: This stunning summer resident has a robust song but sluggish movements. It needs fairly large wooded tracts, where its nests are “frequently so loosely put together that when viewed from the ground the eggs may be seen through the nest,” Eaton (1914) noted. (Eaton II: 339) This songster is especially vulnerable when woodlands are fragmented. Nonetheless, evidence of breeding was found in blocks throughout our region during the Breeding Bird Atlas projects, with the most consistent gaps occurring in western Monroe County where development pressure has been severe. More easily found in the unbroken forested highlands in southern Livingston and Ontario Counties.

Summer maxima: 11 on 23 June 1988 (Reinhardt) on the east side of Letchworth SP. (Fox, p. 90) 9 on 31 August 1966 (S. Taylor) at Powder Mill Park. (GOS, October 1966)
Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of departure dates from 9 September to 23 October, with a mid range, or “normal departure time” of 16 to 30 September.
Winter: A rare winter appearance was a female 10-13 December 1981 at Mendon Ponds Nature Center feeder. (KB32: 115) It was seen by a nature center staff member and confirmed by other observers. It was “eating peanut butter and appeared in poor condition,” John Brown reported. (BA, 17 December 1981)

Western Tanager

Piranga ludoviciana
The morning of 9 May 1993 was calm, clear and crisp – only about 55 degrees. At Washington Grove, a mature woods with steep hills on the north side of Cobbs Hill Reservoir, Jean Browning caught sight of a bird with a bright yellow belly amid the blossoms of a tree about 75 feet away. When its red face also came into view, Jean at first thought it must be an “escaped cage bird,” she wrote in her verification report. However, when it landed on a horizontal branch, facing her 30 feet away, she could see red on the back of the head, a yellow collar, and a blunt, thick bill of light shade. When it again landed 100 feet away, this time with its back to her, she could see the black back, two wing bars (upper one “noticeably” wider) and the lighter rump. “In the two or three minutes of spotting the behavior and markings of the bird I concluded that I had a wandering male Western Tanager.” The bird, our third of only three ever recorded in our region, then flew off to the east.
Background
This colorful species breeds farther north than any other tanager, reaching southeast Alaska and extreme southern Yukon Territory. It nests in open conifers and mixed woodlands southwards across much of the western third of the U.S Its sluggish habits and its predilection for seeking the shade of foliage make it relatively inconspicuous, notes Jocelyn Hudon in her profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. However, large numbers can appear in parks and orchards during migration. It winters in southern California, Mexico and Central America. Individuals are annually recorded far outside this species’ normal range. Populations fluctuate from year to year, but this is not considered an endangered or threatened species. (BNA 432: 1-2, 19, 21)
Status
       Sporadic, very rare visitant.
Occurrence
This colorful western species has been reported only three times here.      1. A male on 21 August 1977 (Gordon) at Pittsford sat briefly above a thistle feeder, apparently attracted by the commotion of American Goldfinches feeding there. (KB 27:218)      2. A male on 6 May 1980 (V. Miller-Dardenne) Irondequoit. (KB 30:168) Not accepted by NYSARC. (KB 31:210)A male on 9 May 1993 (Browning) at Cobbs Hill. (KB 43:223) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 45:74)
Misc.
     A cautionary tale can be found in the published accounts of one to two “Western Tanagers” that reportedly appeared every few days at a Pittsford residence from mid May into June 1963. One observer “took about 25 feet of film” of the rare visitors, Alfred Starling reported. (WBR, 17 June 1963) “The identification seems to be unimpeachable,” John Brown noted in his column. (BA, 13 June 1963) Alas, it was anything but. “The bird in question turned out to be a male Scarlet Tanager in changing plumage.” (BA, 27 June 1963)

Northern Cardinal

Cardinalis cardinalis
Clarence Barg was 15, an eager young birder, when his buddy Earl Phillips rode up to Barg’s Cedarwood Terrace home one morning to report a rare sighting at Highland Park. The two boys rode their bikes back to the park, and there it was: a male Northern Cardinal, its red plumage “a stunning contrast to the light coating of snow in the park that morning.” It was 21 April 1928. “That was a thrill,” Barg recalled in an interview 70 years later. It was the first Northern Cardinal he had ever seen, despite two years of diligently observing birds in Rochester. It was another eleven years before he saw another. (Marcotte, p. 9)Earlier that year, another cardinal had appeared on Monroe Avenue “and adjacent streets in the village of Pittsford,” Edson and Horsey reported. This “created considerable excitement because none who then beheld it had ever seen a cardinal.” (“Birds of Far Flung Habitations Spend Winter at Highland Park,” D&C, 23 January 1928) Now these colorful songsters are common year-round residents, flocking to feeders in winter. R. and G. Guenther reported 21 at a time at their feeding station in January 2005. (LG, March 2005)And so, another “southern invader” has become established here, and the gradual expansion of the Cardinal’s range into our area is fascinating to track and extensively documented.
Background
This is a year-round resident throughout eastern and central United States, and also from extreme southern Canada into parts of Mexico and Central America. It has expanded its range northward since the early 1800s, primarily due to moderating climate, opening of forests (providing edge habitat), and a proliferation of bird feeders. It is well adapted to nesting in plantings around houses. It also has been introduced in California, Hawaii and Bermuda. Recent research suggests that brighter males have the highest reproductive success and occupy the best territories; brighter males and females (underwing coverts) provide better parental care. This remains an abundant species, with “no special effort needed to ensure their survival.” (BNA 440: 1-2, 6, 14, 23)
Local history
Many people are incredulous to learn that one of our most beloved feeder birds is a relative newcomer to our area.In the early 1900s, this species’ presence in New York was confined primarily to the “extreme southeastern counties west of the Hudson river, but not in Westchester county on the other side . . .” Eaton recorded. “What few specimens are raised in the State are likely to be killed during the shooting season in late fall or during the winter months, their conspicuous appearance and notes attracting the attention of everyone that passes by,” he added. “They learn, however, to be very secretive in habits . . .” He considered it an accidental visitor in Livingston and Monroe counties, adding it had been seen at Brockport and was possibly a breeder in Chautauqua County. (Eaton I: county charts, II: 325-326)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated that in 1917 “a male spent the winter and was noted on 115 days. Otherwise rare.” Single birds were the norm, with a maximum of only two, on dates ranging from 2 November to 23 April. However, as early as the 1920s, the cardinal was making inroads in western New York. There was a “marked increase” in the Gowanda area during that decade, with an estimated 20 pairs within four miles of the state hospital there by 1930, and many nests found. (B&M, p. 413) Cardinals first nested in Livingston County in 1938 at Mt. Morris. (Fox, p. 97) When one was seen at Forest Lawn in Webster that June, Edson speculated that it “may have wandered in” from the Mt. Morris colony. (WBR, 27 June 1938)Edson, who wrote a Weekly Bird Report for the Democrat and Chronicle, was in a unique position to chronicle this species’ arrival here. Two more were seen near Genesee Hospital on 29 October 1938, Edson reported. “They are much more common in the South, but are gradually extending their range northward,” he noted. These birds, he speculated, may have come from the Gowanda colony in Cattaraugus County. The Great Lakes produce a warmer temperature zone along their south shorelines, corresponding to the “normal life-zone” of this species even farther south, he noted. To reach this zone, however, the cardinals would have to come in from the west, rather than over the colder zone just south of us. (WBR, 7 November 1938) “Evidently, there was a separate movement from the Ohio Valley into western NY,” Claudia Melin notes in her profile of this species for Bull’s Birds of New York State. (Levine, p. 538)   In January 1941, Edson reported that the Northern Cardinal “apparently has become established as a nesting and permanent resident bird in Monroe County.” A male and two females had been observed near the intersection of Oatka Creek and Bowerman Road south of Scottsville the previous summer. The male, at least, was still there. The hawthorn tangles at the site offered “an ideal location for the cardinals to establish a colony.” (WBR, 20 January 1941)By March 1943, pairs could be heard near the Float Bridge on Irondequoit Bay, near the Sunshine Camp and southwest of Scottsville, and “no doubt there will be several additional stations discovered this summer,” Edson reported. (WBR, 22 March 1943) And in January 1946, Edson wrote that the Northern Cardinal “is now, of course, well established as a permanent resident, with 14 individuals at seven well-separated localities and four birds in one place…” (WBR, 1 January 1946) A record 19 were seen on the 1948 Rochester CBC. (GOS, November/December 1948)In 1953 Leo Tanghe listed this as a common breeding species in the Rochester area, specifically mentioning the Burroughs-Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary and Highland Park as nesting locations. (GOS, May/August 1953) Harry Van Beurden found 13 in Durand-Eastman Park on 24 November 1953. (GOS, November/December 1953) Indeed, when Tanghe examined 1,665 outings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951-1954, Northern Cardinal was reported 870 times, with average counts of 1-5. In other words, within about 15 years, a rare visitor had become one of our most frequently encountered songbirds. (KB 5: 69: 7A-7B)Twenty-four were tallied on 26 February 1958 (Whites, Dakins) in the Mendon Ponds area (GOS, March/May 1958); 17 were at a feeder in Egypt during the winter of 1961-62. (KB12: 36) Note the steady rise in Rochester Christmas Bird Count tallies from 20 in 1950, to 60 in 1953, 100 in 1960, 311 in 1969 and 516 in 1980. “More than any other species, its increase and spread coincide with the availability of feeding stations,” Melin notes. “Also, changes in land use from agricultural to suburban communities rich in shrubby cover provide opportunities for summer food and nesting and protective winter cover. Decades of milder winters in the last 100 years have favored this resident species, which expands its range during the fall after the breeding season.” (Levine, p. 538)
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a common permanent resident.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a fairly common permanent resident.
Occurrence
The Cardinal is one of the earliest harbingers of spring. Pairs begin singing and squabbling over territory as early as late January. “Shortly after sunup one day last week when the temperature was hovering only a few degrees above zero it felt like winter, but all of a sudden it sounded very much like spring,” John Brown wrote in early February 1977. “For the first time this year the Cardinals were singing.” (BA, 9 February 1977)This was also illustrated in Thelma McNett’s yard where, by 1966, it was “not uncommon” to have 24 or 26 Cardinals coming to her feeder regularly in winter. Late that January a major blizzard dumped as much as 34 inches of snow. “We awakened to see the entire flock crowded into our feeder instinctively aware that this was more than just a passing storm,” she reported. They even flew into the breezeway for shelter. However, a few days after the storm ended, the McNetts noticed “a strange lack of cardinals.” Her first concern: they had all succumbed during the storm. In fact, they were already dispersing and pairing off, chasing each other and singing in the yards of friends “who have not had cardinals all winter.” (GOS, April 1966)
Summer/breeding status: The Breeding Bird Atlas projects further illustrate not only this species’ adaptability, but just how much its status has changed in less than a century. It has gone from a bird “never seen” by those who beheld it, to one for which evidence of breeding was found in virtually every block assigned to our region.

They are capable of multiple broods; cardinals were reported feeding young out of the nest on 4 October 1958 at Avon. (KB 8:117) Winter: During a winter of heavy snowfall, one Perinton resident reported as many as 30 Cardinals coming to his feeders in January 1969. (BA, 16 January 1969)

Misc.
More than usually adaptable were two cardinals that nested in 1961 in a potted Christmas tree left on a front porch in Webster. “The eggs had hatched and the young were thriving until May 14 when a neighborhood cat got them,” Brown reported. (BA, 8 June 1961) During the unusually hot, dry summer of 1988, Ted and Mary Ann Howie, on Rochester’s northeast side, were perplexed by what was happening at their trellis. When their carefully tended cucumbers reached about an inch in length, something would come along and chew off about half of each. Finally, Mary caught a culprit in the act: A cardinal was snapping off the tiny vegetables. “A couple of drops of moisture would form on the broken vegetable and there was undoubtedly liquid in the part carried away. Thirsty cardinals had discovered a small water source.” (Birds, 17 July 1988)

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Pheucticus ludovicianus
A pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in the Jordans’ yard on Overbrook Road in Pittsford built a “floppy-looking” nest on a branch about 18 feet up in a box elder tree, John Brown related. (BA, 15 June 1967) “The male and female take turns incubating the eggs, and often while the male is on the nest he whiles away the time by softly warbling the typical grosbeak song. So expert is he as a ventriloquist that it sounds as if the song were being produced by a bird in some far-off tree top.” The robin-like song, punctuated by a sharp “chink,” signals the presence of this handsome summer resident. Despite concerns about its possible decline, it remains a widespread breeding species in our region.
Background
“Cutthroat” is one nickname that might change how one perceives this colorful songster! It breeds in open or regenerating woodlands, thickets, parks and gardens across much of eastern and central North America, and winters in Central and South America. It has been regarded as both a pest, because of its fondness for tree buds, flowers, cultivated peas and fruits, and a beneficial species because it eats potato beetle larvae, scale insects and other pests. This one of the few species reported to sing while on the nest. BBS data showed significant increases from 1966 to 1979, then significant declines from 1980 to 2000. Though it does well in edge and secondary habitats, and would seem to be relatively tolerant of human disturbance, some studies suggest that reproductive success in woodland fragments is significantly less than in contiguous forest and large forest patches. (BNA 692: 1-2, 6, 16-17)
Local history
Eaton (1910) listed this as an uncommon summer resident in Monroe County, also occurring in Livingston and Wayne, and a common transient in Monroe. (Eaton I: county charts)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated average counts of one to seven birds, with a maximum count of 20, on dates ranging from 3 May to 3 October.  When Leo Tanghe examined 1,665 outings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951-1954, this species was reported 163 times, but the majority of those sightings (110) were in May. There were only 32 records June through August, compared to 120 for the then-newly arrived Northern Cardinal, and 73 for Scarlet Tanager. (KB 5: 69: 7A-7B)In 1953, Tanghe considered it an uncommon breeding species in the Rochester area, specifically listing the Burroughs-Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary and Bushnell’s Basin as nesting locations. (GOS, May/August 1953) Howard Miller echoed that assessment a year later, describing this as a “rather uncommon” summer resident, usually frequenting “rather well watered” woodlands during the breeding season. (GOS, November/December 1954) Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, common summer resident and an occasional, very rare winter visitant.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a (presumably regular common) spring and fall transient and a regular common summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 1 April to 17 May, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 2 to 10 May.       One on 17 March 1991 (Lanzone) at Chili prompted a Kingbird regional editor to wonder: “wintering bird or migrant?” (KB 41:184)
    Spring maxima:         40 on 10 May 1995 (B. and B. Powell) at Island Cottage Woods and several other locations. (LG, June/July 1995; GOS, July/August 1995)      30 on 12 May 1971 (J. and T. McNett) lakeshore. (GNR)    500+ in four hours on 12 May 1978 (R. Dobson) at west spit, Braddock Bay (KB 28:172) during a massive songbird flight.       40+ on 17 May 1997 (mob) at several locations. (GOS, July/August 1997)      30 on 18 May 1996 (McKinney, Easton) west lakeshore. (GOS, July/August 1996)
Summer/breeding status: Despite concerns that this species may be decreasing in abundance, both Breeding Bird Atlas projects found evidence of breeding in almost every block assigned to our region.

Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of departure dates from 10 September to 13 November (1980), with a mid range, or “normal departure time” of 20 September to 4 October. Even later was one on 15-18 November 1989 (McKinney) at Penfield (GOS, January 1990), another on 23 November 1985 (Dimuro, F. Dobson) at Brighton (GOS, January 1986) and another from 3-25 November 2001 (O’Hara) at Greece. (LG, January 2002) Also note occasional winter occurrences below.
Fall maxima: 30 on 16 September 1976 (J. Skelly) at Island Cottage. (KB27:37)
Winter: One subadult male was a regular visitor at a feeder maintained by Dr. and Mrs. Duane Walker of Irondequoit, officially from 27 January (Leubner, Moon, Sunderlin) to 12 April 1973 (KB23: 90; GNR), though they told John Brown it had actually been present since early December. “It seems to prefer the sunflower seeds in a coconut shell feeder,” Brown reported. (BA, 1 February 1973) It was our first winter record. A bird of similar description was reported from Henrietta at the same time, Brown noted. Other winter records: One from 5-12 December 1976 (J. and N. Dilley) at Brighton. (KB 27:98) An immature male and an adult male from 2-31 January 1979 (M. Peter, R. and J. Kesselring) “erratically at several neighboring feeders” in Greece. (KB29: 92) An immature male on 16 December 1979 (R. Spahn, S. Hazen, B. Tenney) at Greece. (KB 30:109) A female on 16 February 1985 (H. Madden) at Livonia. (KB35: 126) One from 1-14 December 2002 (B. and E. Molyneaux) at Webster. (KB 53:142)
Misc.
Members of a Genesee Ornithological Society field trip were watching an “overly excited” male at Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area on 12 June 1993 when “he suddenly dove right at the group, passing just over our ducking heads,” Greg Hartenstein wrote. “I could not find ‘Kamikaze Grosbeak’ in my field guide, but if it ever is added, we already have it for our list.” (GOS, July/August 1993)

Blue Grosbeak

Passerina caerulea
If you’re ever going to see a Blue Grosbeak in our region, hope it is under exactly the conditions that Bob Spahn and his daughter Cathy saw one along Church Road in Hamlin on 11 May 1991. As they began to drive away from one viewing spot, a bird flushed up from a grassy road edge onto a utility wire – and sat there. It gave a “funny sideways tail flip.” As it fidgeted, the blue on the breast and most of the head could be seen. Also brown wing bars. And a very heavy but pointed bill, with a lighter lower mandible. “We watched it for awhile,” Bob recalled. The bird then dropped down into a freshly plowed field on the other side of the road. Bob walked across slowly, hoping for a photograph. “It was about fifty feet out, sitting on a very short piece of stubble in perfect light,” Bob noted in his verification report. “Before I could focus, bird flew off to a new perch, flying very low. Lots of tail flicking at each landing.” It kept working farther and farther off into the field. Spahn found it interesting that, depending on the angle of the lighting, the blue color appeared to range from the dark blue depicted in the field guides to “near charcoal gray to a light powder blue effect. When it flew, the same area would present different blue shades with each twist of body in flight.”
Background
This is a large bunting of the southern forest edge, “often seen singing from roadside wires and tree tops,” notes James Ingold in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America. Though breeding across much of the southern half to two-thirds of the United States and into the upper Plains states, it is generally scarce. Cowbird parasitism and competition with other bunting species may keep its numbers low. However, its range has been expanding northward, with consistent breeding in Ohio and central New Jersey documented only since the late 1970s, for example. Highest densities are in Georgia and the Carolinas. It nests in shrubs or tangles of vines, and winters in Mexico and Central America, where year-round populations also exist. (BNA 79: 1, 2, 9)
Local history
“The Blue grosbeak bears a considerable resemblance, when seen among the foliage, to the Indigo bunting,” which might easily be confused with it “when imperfectly seen or in unusual conditions of the atmosphere,” Eaton (1914) cautioned. (Eaton II: 329) “As it (Blue Grosbeak) has been reported so many times by amateur bird people in New York, I make these suggestions to restrain the possible error. Very few New York specimens have ever been seen, and it seems almost impossible that the numbers reported by different observers could be actual occurrences.”By specimens, of course, Eaton meant birds that had actually been shot and could be examined “in hand” to verify their identity.
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a casual, very rare visitant.
Occurrence
The number of sightings here is somewhat clouded by discrepancies, but appears to be no more than five: 1. One seen on 12 June 1940 “along the railroad back of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery . . . seems to be the first record of this bird in Monroe County,” Edson reported. (WBR, 17 June 1940) “Possibly this bird, like the cardinal, is moving up and following the shores of Lake Erie and Ontario along the warmer zone which borders these lakes.” Whether he simply forgot this sighting or had some reason to later question it is not clear. In any event, sixteen years later Edson again reported a “first record for Monroe County”: 2. One 13 May 1956 (Woodams) “from the Buck Pond area.” (WBR, 21 May 1956) This record, Edson wrote, “seems well based as it was seen and studied in good light and compared with the illustrations of the indigo bunting as well as the blue grosbeak in Peterson’s Bird Guide and the difference in coloration and size and shape of bill noted.” The Monroe County annotated list (1985), on the other hand, acknowledges the sighting from 1940 – giving the date as 11 June – but NOT the one from 1956, which is not listed in the Goshawk or Kingbird, either.A female on 5 September 1977 at Lima (KB 28:41), observed by John and Arleen Foster from 20-25 feet away as it fed in an area of heavy brush and small trees. “The bird was generally buffy brown beneath and chocolate brown above with tan wing bars. It was partially concealed by leaves and branches during the observation time and it moved little, only to get more thorn apples which it was eating,” John reported. (LG, October 1977) It was larger than a Purple Finch and had a much larger bill than a female or young Indigo Bunting; the wingbars “were very distinct.” Foster acknowledged he did not realize “what this bird was” until the next day, adding, “I won’t feel the least disturbed if this report is rejected because I also feel that a species this unusual to the area should be verified by several observers.” 4. A female on 12 May 1979 (Davids, Listman, Madden, mob) at Point Breeze. (KB 29:147) 5. Spahn’s bird on 11 May 1991 at Hamlin. (KB 41:184) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 43:22)
NOTE: Three other occurrences are reported in bird columns, but do not appear in any of the noteworthy sightings or Region 2 Kingbird reports. One was reportedly found on Census day in 1979 at Island Cottage, according to John Brown’s Birds Afield column of 23 May 1979. Frank Dobson reported that two males had shown up 12-19 May 1988 at feeders south of Honeoye Lake (Birds, 12 June 1988); they were reported back again at the same feeders the following year, according to Dobson’s column of 28 May 1989. There is a possibility, of course, that the Honeoye Lake birds were actually Indigo Buntings, which also tend to show up at feeders in spring.

Indigo Bunting

Passerina cyanea
At first glance this bird seems anything but “indigo.” It can almost look black, especially when backlit. “We started out with the definite purpose in mind to find the Indigo Bunting,” Richard O’Hara wrote of an outing to Cobb’s Hill on 5 June 1938. “The first bird seen was the indigo, which was singing far atop a dead limb and the colors could not be seen. But he soon flew down to a small limb with a background of green leaves. We also had another beautiful look at him later.” The song is distinctive enough, but this birder has to relearn it each year; for some reason, it does not “stick” in his memory banks! He did not feel so bad after reading in Eaton that the “pleasant, chippering warble . . . though rather definite in form of delivery . . . never makes a definite impression upon my mind so that I remember it from one season to another.” (Eaton II: 332) Background
This songster prefers brushy and weedy areas in abandoned fields and roadsides a few years after the lands are left to recover their vegetation. They also thrive along power line rights-of-way and railway sidings. This species breeds from the Great Plains eastward to the Atlantic seaboard, and winters in Mexico, Central America and northern South America. It is increasing its range and density and may be the most common breeding passerine in Kentucky and Tennessee. (BNA 4: 1-2, 4, 18)
Local history
Eaton (1910) listed this as a common summer resident in Monroe and Wayne counties, and fairly common in Livingston. (Eaton I: county charts) R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated average counts of one to three birds, with a maximum count of 20, on dates ranging from 1 May to 10 September. When Leo Tanghe examined 1,665 outings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951-1954, this species was reported 148 times from early May through September, with average counts of no more than 5. (KB 5: 69: 7A-7B)In 1953, Tanghe considered this a common breeding species in Rochester area, specifically listing the Burroughs-Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary and Reed Road as nesting locations. (GOS, May/August 1953)A year later, Howard Miller echoed that assessment, describing this as “a quite common summer resident” in and about clearings, weed-grown wastes and edges of woodlands. (GOS, November/December 1954)
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, common summer resident.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a (presumably) regular common spring and fall transient and a regular common summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 26 April (1978) to 24 May, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 11 to 18 May. Outside Monroe County, one on 31 March 1983 (H. Madden) at Livonia was earlier (GOS, May 1983) but is questioned by Fox, who notes “no supporting details were given and its absence in The Kingbird is to be noted.” (Fox, p. 97) Also earlier: one on 8 April 1984 (J. and J. Connor) at Greece, also not listed in KB. (LG, May 1984) First birds of the season often appear at feeding stations.
Spring maxima: 56 on 23 May 1987 (Bassett, Conklin) at Letchworth SP. (GOS, July 1987) 50+ on 31 May 1997 (K. Fox, R. Spahn) Ontario and Livingston counties. (GOS, July/August 1997)
Summer/breeding status: The song is often delivered from a prominent tree or pole in open areas where there is dense brush for its nests. The BBA projects found evidence of breeding in almost every block assigned to our region.

Summer maxima: 51 on 5 June 1994 (RBA trip) at Letchworth SP. (LG, June/July 1994) 54 on 6 July 1975 (Perrigo) in the Bristol Hills. (LG, August 1975)
Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of departure dates from 3 August to 25 September, with a mid range, or “normal departure time” of 30 August to 9 September. Subsequently one on 10 October 2000 (Kimball) at Nations Road was later. (GNR)
Winter: A male at Leicester on 30 November -4 December 2003 (Grosshans, D. Henderson et al) was very unusual. “This species is rare in NYS after October, even on the coast,” NYSARC noted in accepting this report. (LG, January, February 2004; KB 56:19)
Misc.
During the 1979 Little Lakes CBC, a “lighter moment” was enjoyed when some of the birders dropped by a home within the circle “well known . . . for its well stocked feeders.” While the birders were chatting with the owners, Bob McKinney reported, “the lady of the house proudly showed us a bird she had found dead on her lawn and kept in her freezer for 15 years, a male Indigo Bunting.” (LG, January 1980)Banded birds: A second year male banded at Manitou on 4 June 2001 was killed flying into a moving vehicle 26 days later at Westmoreland, NH, about 270 miles to the east. (LG, February 2002)

Painted Bunting

Passerina ciris
“An unusual finch showed up at the feeder of Chris Gates on May 11, 2002 in the Town of Greece in Monroe County. After some initial confusion, Chris identified the bird and much to the delight of area birders, reported it as a Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris),” notes the commentary accompanying two photos of this bird shown at NYSARC’s “Gallery of New York rarities.” “Over the next five days, the bird made regular appearances to his niger seed feeder where its larger size than the American Goldfinches also dining there, was apparent. The female of this species is hardly a match for the gaudy male and it was referred to by one observer, who had been hoping to see an adult male, as an ‘Unpainted Bunting.’”     Background
These spectacularly plumaged songbirds occur in two geographically distinct and separate breeding areas: a western population from Kansas south into Texas and Louisiana, and an eastern population along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida. This is a species of special concern, declining since at least the mid 1960s. The eastern, coastal population faces loss and degradation of breeding habitat as swampy thickets and woodland edges give way to development; reasons for decline in western populations not as clear. Loss of riparian habitats in southwest U.S. and northwest Mexico, where migrants stop to molt, “may be bottleneck affecting population numbers.” Casual, out-of-range reports are relatively infrequent, but have ranged from California to the maritimes. “Some of these reports may have been of escaped cage birds.” (BNA 398: 1-3, 16)Indeed, “In the days when there was more extensive traffic in native birds, numerous specimens of this brilliantly colored bunting were imported and sold in the New York market so that specimens occasionally were noticed which had escaped from confinement or had been liberated,” Eaton (1914) noted (Eaton II: 333). Given the ongoing trade in this species as a caged bird in Mexico there is still the possibility of escapees. (KB52: 18)
Status
Casual, very rare visitant.
Occurrence The female on 11-15 May 2002 (C. Gates, mob) at the Greece feeder remains our region’s only sighting of this bird. (KB 52: 241, 244) As the NYSARC commentary noted: “Most interesting was the manner in which it fed on this type of (niger seed) feeder. Unlike the goldfinches which leisurely hung upside-down, the Painted Bunting pirouetted on its perch, snatching a seed on the way around. Plumage color is the best way to tell this species from other North American buntings - the greenish upperparts and yellowish underparts distinguish this bird.” Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 54: 300)[Editor: In 2021 A male was seen by many at a home in Greece.]

Dickcissel

Spiza americana
Douglas Bassett, naturalist at Letchworth SP, rolled down his car window to “expectorate some very spent toothpaste” the morning of 1 June 1980, and in the process heard a bird that over the next 39 days valiantly staked out a territory and tried, without success, to find a mate.“Dick, dick, ciss, ciss, cissel,” was the song Bassett heard that morning.The bird’s markings, especially the relatively small black bib “broken into separable flecks of black in its lowest third” suggested this was an “immature bird that had yet to reach the finely hued plumage of the adult male Dickcissel,” Bassett reported. (LG, November 1980) “One could always find this aggressive bird singing from his favorite ash tree or cattail and defending his unchallenged dominion in an extensive goldenrod and sedge field,” Chip Perrigo noted. (LG, August 1980) “Even the resident blackbirds and sparrows were not immune to his pompous wrath.” During more than a dozen visits to the site, about a quarter mile west of the Castile Entrance to the park, Bassett witnessed “some interesting entanglements” as the Dickcissel apparently attempted to copulate with a Song Sparrow, a male House Sparrow, even a male Downy Woodpecker. “I read these encounters not as aggression towards intruders but as desperate hopefulness.” Alas, Bassett’s Dickcissel, so far from its normal range, never found a mate. “The last two times I saw Dickcissel, he was pecking through the roadside pebbles, not singing, seemingly oblivious to closely passing cars, with all the subdued airs of a despondent feathered fellow. I couldn’t ascertain whether he was procuring grit, seeds, or road-killed insects, or anything at all, as if just going through the motions.”
Background
In the Midwest and Plains states, the Dickcissel is a common resident of grassy fields, taking a low perch to sing with “great earnestness” the simple song that gives it its name. (Eaton II: 335) Though this species is closely associated with prairie grasslands of the Great Plains, it is “notorious” for its “erratic, seminomadic” movements outside this core range, and often breeds in peripheral areas with extensive grassland habitat, notes Stanley A. Temple in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. Dickcissels sometimes move beyond even this peripheral range to breed sporadically as far east as western New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, though often these areas are occupied only by unmated males (like Bassett’s above). Nomadic movements are most likely to occur, it appears, when drought on the main breeding range forces birds to search out more suitable habitat. As a result, there can be “dramatic, year-to-year changes in (this species”) distribution and abundance.” This may help explain this bird’s initial expansion into eastern U.S., and then its retreat. Creation of extensive agricultural grasslands in previously forested areas in this area during the 19th century “temporarily made these regions east of the core range suitable habitat for a nomadic species that could discover and colonize newly available habitat. After most extensive agricultural grasslands in the East were abandoned and began reverting to forests, Dickcissels no longer found the area attractive.” Wintering birds are most common in the grasslands and savannahs of Venezuela, but are also prone to wander. Despite loss of grasslands, this species has adapted well to secondary habitats and “even thrives in some agricultural landscapes.” After sharp declines from 1966 to 1978, populations appear to have stabilized. (BNA 703:1-3, 16)
Local history
During the early 1800s, this distinctively marked “black-throated bunting” could be found throughout the southeastern and western parts of New York State, DeKay wrote. (Eaton II: 334)Reasons for its disappearance are not clear, Bull (1974) noted. “It had apparently become very rare by the 1870s in the Northeast.” (Bull, p. 552) Eventually, it “was seldom seen east of Ohio,” Beardslee and Mitchell added. (B&M, p. 417) However, by the 1950s there were increased sightings, prompting speculation that this species was about to reoccupy its previous breeding territories from a century before. (B&M, p. 418; WBR, 22 May 1950)As a result, “the occurrence here, on May 12, of a group of four dickcissels brings to fruition the expectation entertained by local bird students – over a period of nearly a quarter of a century – that this bird would appear here,” Edson reported in 1950. (WBR, 22 May 1950) They were seen along Ballantyne Road. (WB, 16 Nov 1959. (Note: This sighting was not reported in the Goshawk. However, it was referred to by John Brown in his Birds Afield column on 9 January 1958, citing as his source records kept by Genesee Ornithological Society members.)“Why this species so completely disappeared in this area and was confined to the Mississippi Valley for the next half century, is one of the mysteries in bird life. (Note: See background above.) For that matter, why it is now making the attempt to reoccupy the former breeding area is just as puzzling. At any rate it seems quite possible that, in the next 10 years, it may again become established here as a breeding bird.”The next sighting seemed to confirm that hope: Edson found a pair at Dryer and Strong Roads in the town of Victor on 24 June 1955. (WBR, 4 July 1955) Subsequently, a nest with four eggs was discovered, but the nest was destroyed in early July. (GOS, April-December 1955)John Brown couldn’t help wondering how many others might be around. “Favorite birding spots like the lakeshore ponds and bays near the city get a careful going over every week in the year, but the type of terrain where dickcissels might be expected exists by the thousands of acres in sections where only occasional surveys are made.” (BA, 7 July 1955)However, many of our sightings have not been breeding birds, but fall and winter visitors at feeders. For example, our third record occurred on 31 December 1957 when one landed on Brown’s feeder shelf in Scottsville, just a few feet from the kitchen window. It stayed only a few seconds – just long enough “to leave a definite impression of a yellow breast and a few fine streakings of black,” Brown reported. (BA, 2 Jan 1958)He was ready for it when it came back that afternoon. Brown had pulled out books by Peterson, Pough and Chapman “all open to the description of the immature Dickcissel. This time the bird settled into the feeder box and stayed there eating for several minutes.”Everything matched. The bird became a regular daily customer and “seems well able to take care of itself and brooks no interference from English sparrows, which it puts to rout without trouble.” (BA, 9 January 1958)The bird at Brown’s feeder was the first of six records in five years, prompting Alfred Starling to observe that this species “gives evidence of increasing in our area.” (WBR, 1 October 1962) But though it continues to appear – almost annually since 1996 – it has remained only “on the verge” of becoming an established breeder: occasional attempts at nesting in various parts of the state, but nothing conclusive. Mrs. Jean Haller of Avon, for example, found an adult male in a weedy meadow just north of West Rush during July 1962. “The bird has been observed three or four times in the past week, singing and acting as though it were on nesting territory, but no nest has yet been found,” Brown reported. (BA, 19 July 1962) “Although there is some evidence that this species may be trying to reestablish itself east of Ohio, New York state records are still rare, especially during the nesting season,” Betsy Brooks added in 1988 after reporting on an unsuccessful nesting attempt in Allegany County outside our region. (KB 38: 237-239) Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a sporadic, very rare visitant.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a casual rare summer resident/visitant.
Occurrence
In addition to earlier sightings, there have been approximately 35 records for our region since 1955. Recorded every month except March and April, but more often in fall and winter. Dates range from 1 May (1996) to 18 February (1976).

“If birders would learn their (Dickcissels’) distinctive flight call, this species would be reported more often,” Bill Symonds commented in his May 2005 Field Notes. (LG, July/August 2005) “Remember Dickcissels associate with House Sparrows, so double check all those sparrows at your feeders,” Bill Symonds also advised. (LG, December 2003)
Breeding status
During the first BBA Douglas Bassett’s valiant but unsuccessful male, which “Sang and defended a territory through 7 July” 1980, provided the only evidence of breeding anywhere in the state. (KB 38: 237; Andrle, p. 18)During the second BBA, nesting was confirmed in two of five widely scattered upstate blocks in which at least some evidence of breeding was found, but none of these blocks were in our region. Misc.
On 9 November 1959, a “different-appearing sparrow” at her feeder caught the eye of Mrs. Edward Munson of Penfield, who correctly identified it as a Dickcissel. Remarkably, this species then appeared at the feeder for three years running in fall or winter (BA, 10 November 1960; WBR, 18 December 1961). She set up a mist net and captured, banded and released the third on 11 December 1961. (BA, 14 December 1961)When a rare Dickcissel that had visited his feeder finally departed, Allen Kemnitzer of Five Mile Line Road, Webster, alerted Robert Spahn of High Tower Way, Webster – about a half a mile away.Sure enough, an immature Dickcissel – almost certainly the same bird – soon showed up at the Spahns’ feeder. (BA, 14 Nov 1979) Note: On 19 July 1922 a flock of at least 25 “remained all day just back of the homes of W. A. Smith” at Garland, just northeast of Brockport, Beardslee and Mitchell reported. (B&M, pp. 417-418) “At times the birds were within a few feet of the house. They were observed at very close range for a long period. . . the notes were repeatedly heard and all identifying marks were carefully noted.” Bull was skeptical: “Dickcissels do not flock in mid-July, at least not in New York.” (Bull, p. 552)

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