I looked out the kitchen window this morning and startled part of a large flock of black birds. No, I was not startling starlings, they were Brewers blackbirds. 8^)
They were everywhere: in the bird feeder, on the ground, in the bushes and trees, on the pavement and flying from one of these to another. They were noisy, too.
And they were skittish. I had to be sneaky to get even a few of them in a shot.
Brewer's blackbirds are named for the 19th-century ornithologist, Thomas M. Brewer of Boston. I love their iridescence and their fierce appearance.
Paul McCartney wrote and recorded a blackbird song....though it probably wasn't about birds.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free....
Within thirty minutes---or perhaps it was only four and twenty, they were gone.
But it was a moment that I am glad I did not miss.
Bye, bye blackbird!
2 comments:
I was looking thru some of your pix, and got to this "blackbird", as described by you, but to me, I believe this is a grackle. Brewer's Blackbirds have a much smaller black beak, and a grackle has a more crow-like beak, size-wise, but I could be wrong. I love grackles and have taken many pix of them.
Genie <><
Thanks, Genie, for taking a look and taking the time to comment. At the time of the writing, I was confident with the ID of Brewer's Blackbirds but you may be right. We have both boat-tail and common grackles near the coast here, so I am also familiar with them. I looked today at other pictures of both birds on-line and the Brewer's still seem a better match.
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