A Winter Flock of Blackbirds

    

This photo represents only a few of the thousands of blackbirds I could capture with my camera..

     The noise alerted me at once as I stepped outside, making me look up in awe.  My first thought was Alfred Hitchcock because several thousand blackbirds filled the trees around my house.  Although my kids found The Birds to be ridiculously silly, I was scared senseless by the movie as a child.  Still, seeing so many birds at once seemed almost daunting.  Every large tree I could see was filled with loud, noisy blackbirds.  Once I dismissed the Hitchcock feeling, I ran inside to get my camera. 

     Massive flocks of blackbirds are an amazing spectacle and a sure sign of mid-winter, because that is the only time blackbirds form such a super flock.  Scientists aren’t sure why this occurs but believe the reason is “safety in numbers,” or, better protection from predators.

     Flocks are often made up of several different types of birds.  Assuming this would be a mixed flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, Blackbirds and Grackles, I was surprised when I didn’t see any flashes of red wing bars.  I know Red-wings well from living in Ohio near Lake Erie.  And last winter a single female spent a few weeks at my feeder.  Although it was hard to get a close up image, it seemed like most of the birds were I saw were Brewers Blackbirds, medium-sized glossy black birds with yellow eyes.  However, looking at the range maps for wintering blackbirds, Brewers Blackbirds are more likely to winter west of Virginia.   So, by process of elimination, my colossal flock of blackbirds likely consisted of Rusty Blackbirds and/or Common Grackles.  However, I can’t be sure I didn’t actually see a dark silhouette of Mr. Hitchcock standing in the shadows nearby. 

Most of the birds were glossy black with yellow eyes.