Yellowheads

When a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds descended on our farm yesterday, I was happy to spend some quality time watching and photographing them. These flocks are interesting in that they are completely segregated. This flock was made up entirely of males, but in a few weeks the males will be gone and the flocks will be composed only of females.

The males migrate first in order to stake out the best breeding territories before the females arrive.

What have we here?

 The windmill seemed to be the perch of choice.

The end 

Joseph Miller

Blackbirds!

A deafening flock of Red-winged Blackbirds has been hanging around these parts recently. I tried to capture some of the amazing spectacle with my camera.

The enormous brown rug you see draped across the road is the flock; intent on devouring everything in sight.

 

The creek banks were so crowded that some birds actually landed in the water to drink!

 

This massive flock of blackbirds attracted at least seven species of raptors, including this Red-tailed Hawk. I spotted no less than fifteen red-tails perched among the flock one evening!

It might seem like an easy lunch with this many birds around, but try following one bird in this mass of wings.

This must be why albino birds don't live very long. Their unique coloration makes them much easier to see and catch.

It is impossible to come up with a accurate estimate for the number of birds in a flock of this size, but there are certainly tens of thousands in this one.

Joseph