Brewer's Blackbird
Euphagus cyanocephalus · New World Blackbirds and Orioles
Banding codeBRBL
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 9 in long.
2Color pattern
- Male: glossy black with a purple head and green body sheen
- Pale yellow eye on the male
- Female: plain brown with a dark eye
3Habitat & season
Farmyards, parking lots, parks, fields
In northern Utah: year-round.
Seen most often in April, May and June.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
A short, creaky, squeaky call.
“a rusty 'ksh-eee'”
National Park Service by Rocky Mountain National Park · Public domain
Know it
- Common around farmyards, parking lots and parks across the West.
- Walks with a jerky, head-bobbing gait almost like a chicken's.
- Males have a pale eye; females have a dark one.
- Nests in loose colonies.
Often confused with
Great-tailed Grackle
European Starling
American Crow- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Common Grackle
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
Brewer's blackbird is a medium-sized New World blackbird. It is named after the ornithologist Thomas Mayo Brewer.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0