What to Look and Listen For The evening grosbeak is a regular feeder visitor in the North and West but irregular in much of the East. An irruptive, it moves in great numbers some years and stays closer to the breeding grounds in others. One of our largest finches, the grosbeak's bill is strikingly massive and pale horn-colored to greenish.
Males are gold, white, and black.
Females and young are grayer overall and have black wings with white patches. The song is warbling and irregular, reminiscent of a hesitant house finch's. Travels in flocks in winter, sometimes as large as several hundred, though groups of 10-50 are more typical. When and Where to Look Breeds in the western mountains and in a narrow band across the southern boreal forests of Canada into New England. Eastern populations fluctuate year to year and decade to decade.