The story of the bird
The Black-headed Grosbeak is a bird that stops hikers in their tracks. The male Pheucticus melanocephalus carries a cinnamon-orange so warm and deep it reads as burnt orange in shade and approaches tawny amber in direct sun. The black head is clean-edged, the white wing spots bold. It is a large songbird - seven to eight inches - and it does not hide. The song is rich and melodious, a rolling series of phrases that carries through mixed conifer and deciduous forest at surprisingly high volume.
The grosbeak’s bill explains the name and the diet. The bill is heavy, conical, built for cracking hard seeds - hence grosbeak, large beak. It also eats insects and berries, and it is one of the few birds capable of eating the toxic black berries of elderberry. In the west, where monarchs overwinter in California, it is one of the few species that regularly eats monarch butterflies, sequestering their defensive chemicals without apparent harm.
The Black-headed Grosbeak breeds in western forests from British Columbia to Mexico and winters in Mexico. The breeding male arrives in April and May, singing from exposed perches in riparian woods and mixed forest edges. Both sexes incubate, an unusual arrangement, and the male does daytime incubation while the female covers nights.
For anyone who has watched a male Black-headed Grosbeak catch the morning light in a streamside willow - that warm orange, that size, that carrying song - this print is recognition. A specific and irreplaceable bird.
Paper and finish
Available in three sizes on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm - archival cotton, acid-free, matte finish. Printed by Prodigi using pigment inks rated 100+ years under display conditions.
| Size | Unframed | Framed |
|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | $39 | $99 |
| 16 × 20 in | $69 | $149 |
| 24 × 30 in | $99 | $199 |
Framed prints are glazed, no mat. Frame colours: black, white or natural.
