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Summary

The yellow grosbeak (Pheucticus chrysopeplus) is a bird in the family Cardinalidae, the cardinals, grosbeaks, and “tanager” allies. It is found in Mexico and Guatemala. It also occurs as a vagrant in the United States.

Taxonomy and systematics

The yellow grosbeak was formally described in 1832 with the binomial Cocothraustes chrysopeplus. Some authors have treated it, the black-thighed grosbeak (P. tibialis), and the golden grosbeak (P. chrysogaster) as conspecific.

The yellow grosbeak has three subspecies, the nominate P. c. chrysopeplus (Vigors, 1832), P. c. dilutus (Van Rossem, 1934), and P. c. aurantiacus (Salvin & Godman, 1891).

Description

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...