Yellow Grosbeak

The yellow grosbeak is the largest member of its genus in Mexico and Central America. It is 21.5 to 24 cm (8.5 to 9.4 in) long; one female weighed 77.6 g (2.7 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a deep yellow head, nape, and breast. Their back and rump are a brighter yellow with some faint darker mottling. The sides of their mantle are black and their uppertail coverts black with wide white tips. Their wings are mostly black with wide white tips on the greater and median coverts, white bases on the primaries, and white tips on the outer webs of the secondaries and tertials. Their tail is mostly black with much white on the inner webs of the three outermost pairs of feathers. Their underparts below the deep yellow breast are mostly brighter yellow with white undertail coverts. Their thigh feathers are black. Adult females are overall duller than males. They have heavy black streaking on their crown, nape, and ear coverts. Their mantle is blackish brown with yellowish edges on the feathers. Their wings have about the same pattern as the male's but smaller areas of white. They have much less white on their tail than males and it has a brownish tinge. Juveniles resemble adult females and take two years to attain adult plumage. Males of subspecies P. c. dilutus have a mostly black mantle with some yellow and hidden black bases on the rump feathers. …

The yellow grosbeak has a disjunct distribution along the Pacific sides of Mexico and Guatemala. The range of P. c. aurantiacus is separate from the contiguous ranges of the other two subspecies. Subspecies P. c. dilutus is the northernmost. It is found in central Sonora, southwestern Chihuahua, and northern Sinaloa states in northwestern Mexico. The nominate is found in Mexico from central Sinaloa and western Durango south to northern Oaxaca. P. c. aurantiacus is found from southern Chiapas in southern Mexico intermittently into southern Guatemala. The species occurs occasionally in the U. S. state of Arizona. In addition there are documented records of birds accepted as wild as far north as Colorado and as far east as Arkansas. The yellow grosbeak inhabits a variety of landscapes including deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, gallery forest, scrubby woodlands, and thorn forest. In Mexico it ranges in elevation between sea level and 2,500 m (8,200 ft) and in Guatemala between 300 and 1,850 m (1,000 and 6,100 ft).

The yellow grosbeak's diet has not been studied but it is known to feed on fruits and nectar. It usually forages singly or in pairs and rarely joins mixed-species feeding flocks.