Outside my shop everyday for the past few weeks I
have heard the noisy but fun to see blackbirds. They gather in large flocks and
are quite raucous. Our most commonly seen blackbirds are the common grackle, the
great-tailed grackle, the brown-headed cowbird, the red-winged blackbird and two
birds which are not really members of the blackbird family but also have dark
shiny feathers- the American Crow and the European starling.
To most of us blackbirds seem alike and are hard to distinguish. Some ways
of telling the difference in these birds is to look at the size of the bird and
the profile of its body and beak.
The American Crow is the is the largest of these birds at about twelve and
a half inches with a large heavy black beak and black eyes. The grackles are
smaller and slimmer than the crow (except for the great-tailed grackle which can
be as long as a Crow.) Grackles have yellow eyes. The great-tailed grackle has a
big keel-shaped tail which is almost a long as the body.
The European Starling were brought into the U. S. around 1890 where about
sixty of the birds were released into Central Park in New York City. They have
now multiplied and spread across the country. They have a speckled iridescence
of purple green and black and are the only blackbird with a yellow beak. The
brown-headed cowbird is a pest as they lay their eggs in the nest of another
species of bird, having the other parent bird raise the young instead of its
own. The male bird has a dull brown head and a dull black body and the female is
gray-brown overall, both male and female are short and stumpy and have heavy
wedgelike beaks. The red winged blackbird is our least common here but is
wonderful to see The male is black overall except for the bright red epaulets,
or shoulder patches, which can be seen on the upper part of the wing when the
bird is at rest. A thin yellow trim lies along the botton of the red patch. The
female is a dark brown above and heavily streaked in brown over her underparts.
Many blackbirds are roosting in our trees here in Old Town Spring. Enjoy
them and our great fall weather.
Past and current articles by Kathy Coward of Just for the Birds in Old Town Spring
Last year, and again this year we have had two pair of black birds come to our yard every day from the middle of May until the weather got really hot in July. I have looked for them in a number of bird books, but have not found them. they are about the same size and shape as a mockingbird. Very slender and very shiny black with bright red eyes. The eyes are so bright red they seem to shine. I found one black bird with red eyes, which in size and shape looks very much like the four which have visited my yard, except that the ones in the book have a tall top knot on their head, and our visitors do not have "head ornaments", in fact their heads are as smooth and slender as their bodies. I would love to know the name and home range of these visitors, they are beautiful. I hope to get a picture of them if they should return but so far I have not been successful in being able to photograph them.
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