Houston Rare Bird: Black Headed Grosbeak

Update: Checking the Texas Rare Bird website (link below) the information says this species was seen in Northwest Houston, and the pictures show a much younger bird than the one I saw.  So I guess there may be two of these in the Houston area now.

I think I photographed a really rare bird for Houston.  It’s a Black Headed Grosbeak.

On the Texas Rare Bird Alert website, there was a report of this bird last being sighted on Feb 15, 2011 (now show’s Feb 27, 2011).  In many of my Texas Bird books, it doesn’t even show this bird as having a range anywhere near Houston.

So where did I photograph this really rare bird?  My backyard of course:-)!.

I was sitting out by my pool this morning, and it was very windy today.  Lots of birds were flying around (I’ll be posting pictures later today), and while I was photographing these two Eastern Bluebirds, I noticed this Orange-ish thing in the trees behind my fence (below is the original, unedited, picture).  Yes, I know there is a twig that is very distracting.

As I’m sitting there photographing this bird, I had really no idea what it was.  After consulting many of my bird books, it’s very clear it’s a Black Headed Grosbeak, but very uncommon for this area.  I think it’s also pretty uncommon for them to visit bird feeders.

After taking a few pictures of this bird in the trees behind my house (I had no idea if it would hang around or if I would be able to get a better picture), the bird flew down to my fence.

Normally it’s a this point that I start getting too excited, and as a result, my pictures get worse.  Today, fortunately, I stayed calm.  Maybe it’s because my 300 f2.8 lens is so much heavier than my 100-400, that I have no choice but to be patient:-).

For those that are interested, since this is somewhat of a rarity, I actually live in Humble, TX.  There were lots of other birds around my feeders, including, Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, American Goldfinches, House Finches, Eastern Bluebirds, and Red Bellied Woodpeckers, and a Cooper’s Sharp Shinned Hawk, just to name a few.  I only saw 1 of these birds (Grosbeak), I did not see a pair.  The wind has been blowing about 20 mph, all day, so perhaps it got blown a little off course.

Once this bird jumped down to the fence, it then jumped down to my bird feeder.  I have lots of pictures, and I’m still processing the best ones, so I may be adding some additional pictures to this post.

Here’s some additional pictures for those that are interested.

He wasn’t much of a ladies man, as these two female Cardinals flew away shortly after he appeared.

Related posts:

1. Weekend Bird Shooting, Any Suggestions?
2. Some Birds From Houston Arboretum
3. Bird Books For Houston And The Gulf Coast
4. Flock Of Cedar Waxwings At Lake Houston
5. Houston Arboretum Revisited