Montana Field Guide

Medium-sized passerine, sexes similar in plumage. Adult overall brownish gray with narrow black mask and black chin, gray breast, cinnamon-tinged forehead and malar area, sharply defined dark cinnamon undertail-coverts, and ornate wing pattern, having red, waxlike tips of secondaries, terminal edges of primaries yellow and white, and secondaries and primary-coverts tipped white, producing yellow and white wing-stripes.

In Bozeman area normal migration period is Nov 8-25, with no discernible period in the spring.

Species prefers open coniferous or mixed-coniferous and deciduous forests. Often found in recently burned areas or near lakes and streams, beaver ponds, and swamps.

Diet consists of sugary fruits and insects. During spring, also tree sap and budding flowers.

Single brooded species with four to six eggs per brood. Incubation period roughly fourteen days. Young can fly in 13-16 days after hatch. Egg dates are probably similar to those for Alberta: May 24- Jun 13. Young on the wing in Glacier NP on Aug 19.