02
Nov

Flock of Blackbirds

We first saw this flock at the side of the road. Blackbirds are quite social and seem to like to be close to each other.  And I just saw the photo and post in the Public Forum from Miles Campbell.  All those starlings in his birdbath!  These birds do like to be right on top of each other!

Blackbirds are in their winter flocks.  These flocks can be anywhere from a few dozen birds to thousands and thousands.

Although you can see these flocks anywhere within their ranges, I think the best place to see them is here in The Midwest or out on The Great Plains.  Harvest is either finished or well on its way and so once again, all of us who live here can see to the horizon in all directions.  I have lived in the mountains most of my life and when we moved here 20 years ago, I thought I would miss the mountains.  It turns out I do not.  When we travel, we often go back east through the Appalachians, to Missouri and Arkansas to the Ozarks, or out west through the Rockies and I love the scenery and the trails, but there is truly something peaceful about looking out and seeing a great expanse of land and sky.  And this expanse of land and sky is a wonderful backdrop for watching flocks of blackbirds.  They are truly mesmerizing as they swoop and whoosh through the sky – turning on a dime.  Totally synchronized.  This is an amazing sight.

Another characteristic of a flock of blackbirds is when one takes off, they all take off.  It is most often impossible to see which bird makes the first move. These flocks tend to act as one entity. A collective. There can be a few stragglers on the periphery that act more independently but most often, the entire flock acts as one.

A few days ago, we took a long drive on rural roads – not a car in sight for several hours.  Perfect.  And we saw several of these large blackbird flocks.  We pulled over and here are some photos I took of one of the smaller flocks.  We used our binoculars to look at as many birds as we could and this flock was probably about 90% Brown-headed Cowbirds – both males and females in seemingly about equal numbers.  Mixed in were Red-winged Blackbirds.  The males were out of breeding plumage and into their winter plumage.  The red epaulette that is so prominent in spring and summer was now just a thin line of red with a yellow border.  I was surprised to see females.  Normally, I do not see male and female Red-winged Blackbirds flocked together – I most often see flocks of just males.  There were also just a few European Starlings within the flock.  But even though there were three species, the flock all moved in that wonderful synchronized motion that always signals a flock of blackbirds.

And this last photo shows where they landed. In a newly harvested cornfield. Probably some waste corn to eat which they love. These flocks can contain hundreds and thousands of birds, but when they are on the ground in these harvested fields with their black soil and you are some distance away, you might only know they are there when they move. This smaller flock was fairly close to the road and we saw them land. If we had driven by after they were already in the field, I am not sure we would have noticed them. The birds look like clumps of dirt.  This turned out to be a wonderful day!