Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea

Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea caerulea, Male. Photographs taken at a backyard bird feeder within a residential community in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, October 2022. Photograph and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea interfusa, Female. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, May 2021. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea interfusa, Female. Photograph taken within Xochicalco, Morelos, March 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea interfusa, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, May 2011. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea interfusa, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community, Alamos, Sonora, February 2019. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea interfusa, is one of six subspecies of Blue Grosbeak, five of which are found in Mexico. They are a member of the Cardinalidae Family of Cardinals and Allies, which has forty-nine members placed in fourteen genera, and is one of seven global species of the Passerina Genus. They are known in Mexico as azulillo grande.

The Blue Grosbeak are large in stature. They are sexually dimorphic with the males being an overall purplish-blue color with two brown wingbars, a two-toned beak that is black (upper) and silver (lower); they have black lores that extend down to the lower mandible and to the chin, dark blue patches of purplish-blue feathers edged in black or brown, and shiny black flight feathers. The females are brown with a limited number of blue feathers on the upper parts and have two brown wing-bars. In Mexico they are found in abandoned fields, forest edges, hedgerows, stream edges, deserts, mesquite savanna and southern pines. They are seldom seen in suburban habitats. They feed on insects supplemented by seeds of wild and cultivated grains and are known to congregate in flocks in rice fields. They have life spans of up to six years. The Blue Grosbeak has been poorly studied and very limited information about their behavioral patterns and biology has been documented.

The Blue Grosbeak is found throughout Mexico. The caerulea subspecies winters in southeastern Mexico including the Yucatan Peninsula. The interfusa subspecies is found year-round in Chihuahua and Sonora and populations from the United States winter in western Mexico from southern Sonora, south to Jalisco and west to Mexico City with a few individuals being found in Baja California Sur.

From a conservation perspective Blue Grosbeak is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations.