Rose-breasted grosbeaks are named for the male’s striking coloration, while the females are a more understated brown and white. The males have black heads and backs with white markings along their backs and wings. Their stomachs are white, which shows off their vivid red necks and chests. Both sexes are strong and stocky, with large triangular bills for cracking seeds.  

Rose-breasted grosbeaks are slightly shorter than Northern cardinals, though with an incrementally larger wingspan. Adult rose-breasted grosbeaks measure between 7 and 9 inches long (18 to 23 centimeters) with wingspans of 11 to 13 inches (29 to 33 centimeters). 

In the summers, they prefer deciduous woods, especially near forest edges or places, like parks, riverbanks and orchards, that have a mix of tall trees and lower shrubs. In the winters, they prefer the edge of tropical forests or woods at lower altitudes. 

Rose-breasted grosbeaks migrate north to central Canada and the northern United States late in the spring and south early in the fall. They spend the winters in Central America and the northern countries of South America. 

They live for 2-10 years.

Their characteristic call is a loud, bold “squeak” very similar to the sound of a basketball player’s foot pivoting on a gym floor. Their songs are long, rich musical phrases. Young males sing their first songs when they are about a month old. The songs seem to be learned, rather than innate. The male sings even when he is taking his turn actively sitting on eggs. 

As their sturdy beaks suggest, they eat insects and seeds, though they also eat fruits. They forage in the forest canopy and only sometimes on the ground. Their diet includes beetles, ants, caterpillars, bees, berries and weed seeds including milkweed, sunflowers and foxtail. Rose-breasted grosbeak chicks are fed mainly bugs to help boost their protein take. They have been known to eat domestic crops including corn, oats, peas and wheat. 

Rose-breasted grosbeaks are usually diurnal—active during the day—except that they migrate at night. 

Males defend breeding territories against other males. In the winter, they can form flocks of a dozen or more birds. They will migrate in small flocks on or their own.

Pairs of grosbeaks will mob predators, including blue jays, grackles and squirrels, that threaten their nests.

After raising a brood of chicks, fledglings rely on their parents for food and protection for three weeks. They family will stay together for the rest of the summer until it is time to migrate.

They often return to the same summer breeding area each year. Males will sing to advertise their breeding territory, sometimes singing more than 600 songs a day! Males use both their songs and body positioning—including flight displays—to attract a mate. Once mated, a pair stays together for the summer.

Both parents work together to build the nest, which is a lightly woven bowl of grasses and twigs tucked into foliage in a tree, vine or shrub. Nests are sometimes so thin that the eggs can be seen from below. They line the nest with shredded bark, pine needles and other fine materials. The mothers lay about an egg a day until she has laid a clutch of one to five (but usually four) delicate gray-blue eggs with dark speckles. Both parents incubate the eggs. When they trade places —one coming in to sit on the eggs for a bit while the other goes to forage and stretch their wings—they sing quietly to each other.

The eggs hatch after 11 to 14 days of incubation, and the young stay in the nest for nine to 12 days after they hatch. Rose-breasted grosbeaks usually only raise one brood each summer. Young grosbeaks are able to breed when they are 1 year old.

A species of relatively low concern, rose-breasted grosbeaks face typical songbird perils of bird strike, cat predation and habitat loss. This species is also sold in cages in their wintering rage, due to their beautiful plumage and songs.