A striking male Rose-br Grosbeak graced our feeder today - only the 2nd in 4 years. I invite readers to view the 2 photos at

<http:/www.flickr.com/photos/57109539@N05/ >

and comment on two features: 1) the dark flecks on the upper breast, 2) the "rose" color itself, which seems to me closer to plain red. By way of comparison is an old, fuzzy scanned slide from 1998 which seems more typically rose-colored. A recent photo by Bonnie Ott for comparison is at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparrowbon/7122327153/ 

and this too seems too red.

Does anyone have photos that may shed some light on this? Has the coloration evolved over recent decades, perhaps due to sexual selection? Or is this all imaginary? I'm aware of course of how lighting, scanning, processing, etc etc can affect colors but in this case the posted photo agrees very well with my visual impression.

Fred Fallon
Huntingtown

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