Male glossy black; red shoulder bordered by yellow, less visible when nonbreeding.
Female: heavy streaked brown; crown, eye line dark brown, eyebrow buffy; bill
long, pointed; eyes black; tail medium, rounded.
Winter: roosts in huge groups with blackbirds, cowbirds, starlings.
The blackbird eats seeds, and some insects and berries. The nest is a loosely
woven cup of leaves, lined with soft grasses, usually bound to rushes or other
plants in marshy wetland. When flying in flocks it makes loud clack sounds.
Male (pictured): back, wings, head, chest, part of tail black; wing bar white;
shoulder, chest, base of tail yellow.
Female: olive above, yellow below; two white wing bars. Song clear whistled phrases.
IN OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS
Sighted at the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve (a lush, well-watered
preserve 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] north of Cerro Bonanza, near La Ciénega.)
Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadowlark, Brewer Blackbird - ALL YEAR
Common Grackle, Great-tailed Grackle - TRANSIENT (fall & spring)
Brown-headed Cowbird - TRANSIENT & SUMMER
Bullock's Oriole - SUMMER
Sighted at the Ortiz Mountains Educational Preserve (an isolated high
mountain group -- 7,000 to 9,000 feet [2,133.6 to 2,743.2 meters] elevation --
eight miles [12.9 kilometers] south of Cerrillos.)
Speckled brown above; throat, breast yellow; chest black V; crown striped
brown/white; outer tail feathers white.
Song low, flute-like, also a whistled wheet.
The Western meadowlark eats insects and seeds in grassy or weedy areas. Its nest,
domed and lined with dry grasses and pine needles, is found in shallow depressions
in grassy flat lands.
This website is maintained by the Cerrillos
Hills Park Coalition
and is dedicated to the creation, enhancement and stewardship
of an historical, recreational, and cultural open space in
the
Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA
