For decades, the Evening Grosbeak was a beloved winter visitor to backyard bird feeders. Recent studies have found that since 1970, Evening Grosbeak has lost more than 90% of its North American population. The Road to Recovery initiative has provided support for a project to track Evening Grosbeaks to help learn more about the species’ massive and rapid decline. David Yeany II, Avian Ecologist in the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program at the Western PA Conservancy is one of the leaders in an effort trying to determine potential factors leading to the bird’s decline.

Part of this effort includes ongoing color-banding and tagging of Evening Grosbeaks with satellite and radio transmitters to track their movements and link populations across all seasons and areas. The project is collecting movement data to help determine factors influencing different populations and their declines, including habitat change, diet, death caused by collision and disease, and potential effects of climate change.

To date, the project has color-banded hundreds of grosbeaks from non-breeding populations in Maine, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and Utah. Transmitters deployed on over 200 of those birds are showing linkages to areas in Manitoba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec for eastern birds and British Columbia, Idaho, and Wyoming for western birds.

The team hopes to band and tag Evening Grosbeaks in northern Michigan this winter or spring. If you have Evening Grosbeaks coming to your feeder regularly and would like to be part of this effort, email David Yeany at dyeany@paconserve.org and cc Phil Huber, Wildlife Biologist at MiWildlifeBio@gmail.com. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Phil.

Courtesy Photo A male Evening Grosbeak with a brown satellite tag with solar panel and antenna is seen in February 2023.

You can learn more about the Continental Conservation of the Evening Grosbeak: A Road to Recovery Pilot Species Project here: https://r2rbirds.org/tipping-point-species/evening-grosbeak.

REPORT BANDED EVENING

GROSBEAKS

Birders and backyard bird watchers can also help with this effort by reporting observations of color-banded or tagged Evening Grosbeaks at your feeders. Each observation of one of these birds will add valuable information to help connect the dots as to why this bird has declined so much. If you see any of the grosbeaks from the project, please report them to the USGS Bird Banding Lab at www.reportband.gov and email David Yeany at dyeany@paconserve.org.

Please note and record:

1. Location (Latitude/Longitude coordinates or address) and date.

2. Sex of bird – male or female.

3. Band color combination – Example: RIGHT LEG: WHITE over METAL, LEFT LEG: BLACK over GREEN. All banded birds will have a metal band plus up to three colored bands. Even partial combinations can be useful, and photos are even better.

4. Does the bird have a transmitter? If so, please note that too.