The Rose Breasted Grosbeak is a pretty cool looking bird. I first saw one last year, around this time, high up in a tree. This one was nice enough to perch on a lower limb and sit still for its portrait. Truth be told, the "sitting still" part doesn't seem too out-of-the-ordinary for the Grosbeak. They seem to be a rather "laid-back" bird - nibbling on leaves and seeds - compared to the crazed flitting and jumping of the warblers and flycatchers.
Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak
Female Rose Breasted Grosbeak*
* I REALLY wanted to believe this bird was a new "life list" sparrow or longspur that I hadn't seen before. The more I took pictures, though, the more the beak looked familiar - even though the rest of the bird looked very sparrow-like. Then I saw the male grosbeak with that very telltale beak and realized my "cool new sparrow" was a female Rose Breasted Grosbeak.
Nature plays a joke on me ;)
