(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
This looks like a first winter Blue Grosbeak. I’m not sure when you took this. According to Sibley first winter male and female Blue Grosbeak’s have this typical color pattern. Male and female are very similar between August and March. Between March and September they assume a more characteristic color pattern. You should look this up. So, there is a Goshawk and a Grosbeak but no Gosbeak… With respect to the image, you did a very good job with color, detail, and background. I really like the picture. This particular species of Grosbeak does not make it to my area.
A beautiful bird, John. Love the color of him/her. We have had the Blue Grosbeak in our area (NC) once, and I am hoping he will come back again this year. Ours was full grown, so he was mostly a beautiful blue, with some of that brown in his wings. Love the perch he is on. The BG makes him stand out nicely.
Hi David, Sorry for the misnomer. This pair of Grosbeaks have been using my feeder for a week now. Presently using “Birds of Eastern North America, A Photographic Guide” by Paul Sterry and Brian E Small. I will post the male Grosbeak later today. There seems to be differences in color of most guides but the wing pattern in this case is accurate . I was impressed with the deep brown, coffee color of the female and the blue of the male, almost over saturated blue . Thanks for your helpful comment.
Thanks Shirley, Really happy with the brown/coffee color of the female. The bird guide show the female as a more gray in color. Both the female and male of this pair indicates new pen feathers around the head and wings. I have not edited the colors of either bird except to lower the saturation a bit of the blue male.
