Yellow Grosbeak

Yellow Grosbeak, Pheucticus chrysopeplus

Yellow Grosbeak, Pleucticus chrysopeplus, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, June 2007. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com). This could be either the chrysopeplus or the dilutus subspecies. This bird is rare visitor to southeast Arizona and they have not been characterized to the the subspecies level.

Yellow Grosbeak, Pleucticus chrysopeplus chrysopeplus, Male. Photograph taken within the greater Puerta Vallarta area, Guerrero, March 2014. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

Yellow Grosbeak, Pleucticus chrysopeplus dilutus, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, May 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Yellow Grosbeak, Pleucticus chrysopeplus chrysopeplus and Pheucticus chrysopeplus dilutus, are two of three subspecies of Yellow Grosbeak, and all three are found in Mexico. They are also known as the Mexican Yellow Grosbeak and in Mexico as piquigrueso amarillo. They are a member of the Cardinalidae Family of Cardinals and Allies, which has forty-nine members placed in fourteen genera, and one of six global species of the Pleucticus Genus.

The Yellow Grosbeak are small in stature. They are easy to identify as both sexes possess a massive all dark bill. They are dimorphic with the males being black and yellow birds, with bold white markings over the largely black wings and tail. The females are less strikingly patterned, with dusky markings over the head and upperparts, a blackish-brown shoulder with dull yellowish edges, with reduced white wing markings and brown tinges. Their iris is dark brown and their legs are bluish.

In Mexico the Yellow Grosbeak are found as single individuals or in pairs, in tropical deciduous and semi-deciduous forests, fruiting trees, well-wooded watercourses, scrubby woodland and thorn-forests at elevations up to 2,500 m (8,200 feet). Their diets consist of fruits and nectar. Their life spans have not been determined. The Yellow Grosbeak are uncommon and have been poorly studied and very little has been documented about their biology and behavioral patterns.

The Yellow Grosbeak is endemic to western Mexico and has a limited range being found only within the Pacific Slope from northeast Sonora south to Guerrero. The chrysopeplus subspecies is found from central Sinaloa and western Durango south to northern Guerrero, Puebla, and northern Oaxaca. The dilutus subspecies is found from central Sonora, southwestern Chihuahua, and northern Sinaloa.

From a conservation perspective the Yellow Grosbeak is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations. They a minor component of the Mexican Caged Bird Trade.