Blue grosbeak, Green-Wood Cemetery, April 16, 2024
In early May 2017, a young blue grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) was chowing down on bees at the beehive at Battery Park (at the southern tip of Manhattan). It stayed around for a few days, and I filmed the youngster on May 10 and 11.
Blue grosbeak, Battery Park, New York, May 11, 2017
The bird flitted around the hives, grabbing many bees at it could gobble, then he would fly off to a nearby tree and return to eat some more. We would call out when he'd appear from behind, beneath or in front of a beehive. The little guy was quite active, and the Filming the Feathers video is almost as jumpy as he was. It is set to one of the London Trios by Franz Joseph Haydn, obtained from MusOpen.org.
I have since seen other blue grosbeaks. The male blue grosbeak, in breeding plumage, in the following slideshow was seen at Sylvan Pond in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn on April 16, 2024, and the female in the slideshow was seen at Green-Wood on May 2, 2024.
This young blue grosbeak was photographed at Mount Loretto Unique Area on Staten Island, August 8, 2021.
Because the 2017 bird was so fast, I really didn't get a chance to do more than take video footage. There were three photos, which are all on this page (one as the photo for the video).
Blue grosbeak, Battery Park, May 11, 2017