PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 17, 2026
This winter is shaping up to be one of the best we’ve seen for evening grosbeaks in the state. These large yellow finches, with absolutely massive bills, are fairly common breeders in northern Maine. Pine Grosbeak is a winter visitor to Maine, and technically also a finch, but in a different genus, Pinacola. Evening grosbeaks are in the genus Hesperiphona. Then we have the really confusing rose-breasted grosbeak, which isn’t a finch at all, and instead is in the family Cardinalidae. So “grosbeak” is a bad word to describe relationships, but a good one for describing appearances. One major factor in the abundance of evening grosbeaks lately is tied to the food they are using when nesting, which lately is eastern spruce budworm. Budworms are contributing to the increased population of grosbeaks across the boreal forest where they nest, but it is actually the lack of food in that same area that is driving them south this winter. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox