I haven't had an opportunity to post the past 2 days but I have had plenty of time to contemplate the bird we identified as a Brewer's Blackbird.  One person wanted to know if we considered the possibility of it being a Rusty.  We did & dismissed it based on what I thought I knew about Rusties, which is admittedly very little.  We have a very small amount of experience with Brewer's & even less with Rusties.  The only Rusties I have ever seen (2) were foraging on the ground in very wet woods in spring.  They were by themselves, not with other blackbirds.

This bird came in with a flock of cowbirds from a dairy farm field not far away.  It sat in a tree on the edge of a woods that is wet in spring, waiting for the cowbirds.  It never came down to feed, just flew off with the cowbirds.  I did not think this was behavior typical of Rusties but I have done some additional reading that says they do sometimes forage in agricultural fields with other blackbirds during winter.  The thing that is really throwing us is the bill.  We have looked at several pictures and the bill looked more like the stubbier Brewer's rather than the slimer Rusty.  The plumage could be either; our bird did not look quite like any of the picutres we have seen.  It definitely had a BLACK head with some gloss to it and a BROWN body with a little bit of iridescence.

So the bottom line is, I am not sure what it was.  It has not come back.  I also called it a Brewer's because I thought that was more likely than a Rusty, since we have seen more Brewer's (in northwest OH).  I did not realize Rusties are supposed to be more common throughout the state.  I have only seen them in northwest Oh also.

Either way, this bird was a new one for our yard and our county.  Just don't know which way to list it.  But it was still a thrill to see it.

Laura

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]