pine grosbeak

American  

noun

1. a large grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator, of coniferous forests of northern North America and Eurasia, the male of which has rose and gray plumage.

---

Etymology

Origin of pine grosbeak

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75

Example Sentences

It’s these morsels of food, mountain ash berries, for which the pine grosbeak has come.

From Washington Times • Jan. 31, 2015

The pine grosbeak, a robin-sized finch, summers in the boreal forest of northern Canada, except for a small band extending south along the Rocky Mountains where the birds remain year-round.

From Washington Times • Jan. 31, 2015

“The pine grosbeak are feeding on those mountain ash berries, but why they are down here this year I have no idea,” Wolcott said recently.

From Washington Times • Jan. 31, 2015

“I’m not sure if pine grosbeak are irruptive, but maybe that is part of the equation as they only show up in the valley like this once every 10 years.”

From Washington Times • Jan. 31, 2015

Its original, the blue grosbeak, is an uncertain wanderer from the south, as the pine grosbeak is from the north.

From Locusts and Wild Honey by Burroughs, John