KODIAK PINE GROSBEAK 341 



attention to devil's club buds and berries, Echinopanax horridus, 

 high-bush cranberries, and the buds of the willows and alders. The 

 flocks departed about Mar. 20, 1949, but on June 11 he observed 

 two brilliant rose-red males and three females feeding on dandelion 

 seeds, among a flock of some 20 to 30 pine siskins. 



Joseph C. Howell wrote WiUiams about a nest he found June 9, 

 1944, at Middle Bay, 25 miles southeast of Kodiak. The nest was 

 4 feet up in a small spruce 6K feet high. The nest was loosely built 

 of twigs and lined with hght bro^vn rootlets (much like the nest of a 

 mockingbird), and was 6 inches across, 4 inches in depth. The three 

 eggs were a dull greenish blue, lightly splotched with hght brown. 

 There were three or four old nests, considered to belong to this species, 

 within 150 feet. The female flushed at 2 feet. Her scold was a not 

 very musical peep, much like the call of a spring peeper. She 

 remained in a willow about 12 feet away. Soon two immatures 

 (or females) appeared and spent much time chasing each other. 

 One of these latter birds was most often in a willow 18 feet away. 



Joseph Grinnell (1909) records that Dixon reported "A scattered 

 company * * * in a patch of windfalls at about 1800 feet altitude" 

 on Chichagof Island near Hooniah, Alaska, on June 25, 1907. Dixon 

 continued, "The snow was just melting and many small plants were 

 coming up in the open spaces that were exposed to the sun. The 

 birds in pairs were feeding on these sprouting plants. The song had 

 a clear, snappy, flycatcher-hke accent to it." Dixon found the 

 Kodiak pine grosbeak fairly common at Coppermine Cove, Glacier 

 Bay, in July, and added: "The males would perch on the very tip 

 of some spruce and indulge in a jerky but clear-cut song. Some- 

 times they were found feeding in the alders, where we saw them tear- 

 ing the young alder buds apart, and supposed at first they were eating 

 them; but upon examination we found their crops full of small green 

 worms and it was evidently these the birds were after and not the 

 buds themselves." 



Elsewhere Grinnell (1910) wTites: "The crop of a grosbeak taken 

 by Dixon July 19 at La Touche Island contained sprouting weed 

 seeds. The bird was flushed from the ground. A family of adults 

 and young met with near the same place August 5 were also feeding 

 on the ground where they were gathering soft weed seeds. This 

 shows that the species probably resorts regularly to other sources of 

 food than the leaf-buds of trees." 



Distribution 



Range. — Coastal southern Alaska to Washington and Idaho. 

 Breeding range. — Breeds in southern Alaska (Kodiak Island, Kenai, 



