This is bird note.

The rose-breasted gross beak and evening gross peak take their names from their big, thick, seed-crunching beaks.

Gross comes from old European root words meaning large or thick.

But surprisingly, the two birds aren't closely related.

That's because beaks ideal for opening tough hard seeds, thick conical beaks, evolved in more than one lineage of birds.

Rose-breasted gross beaks are actually more closely related to cardinals,

which also have powerful beaks. Whereas evening gross beaks belong to the finch family,

which includes goldfinches and crossbills, an entire family of seed-eating specialists.

But the two gross beaks had their names before scientists understood that they weren't closely

related.

Yet another kind of bird shares the Grosbeak name.

In areas with a Cajun heritage, in southeast Texas and adjacent Louisiana,

crawfish farmers speak of Grobecks.

Grobeck is a regional name for the yellow-crowned night herons that hang around crawfish aquaculture ponds in search of an easy meal.

Yellow-crowned night herons, too, are equipped with thick, stout beaks, ideal for crunching crabs and a farmer's crawfish.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.