(Click on picture to enlarge)
© Walter Bauer, Sugar Land, Texas, 1998
Field Marks: Male: A blackbird with white eyes; shows purplish reflections on head and greenish on body in strong light. Usually looks quite black. Female: Grayish with dark eyes.
Voice: Note, a harsh check. Song is a harsh wheezy que-ee or ksh-eee, like the creaking of a rusty hinge.
Where found: Southwest Canada south to southwest United States. Winters in Mexico.
Texas: Winters (Oct-Apr) throughout. Breeds locally in the Panhandle (Canyon), North Texas, Trans-Pecos, and perhaps elsewhere in North and West Texas. These birds are colonial in nature.
Habitat: They prefer open country, fields, ranches, farms and towns as you can see from this photograph when they were visiting in Sugar Land, Texas.
Nest: A twiggy grass lined cup, on the ground, in a bush or tree. They lay between 3-7 eggs which are spotted.