Blackbird in the Bog

Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches

     This is an oil painting of a female Brewer’s Blackbird, a species of bird quite unfamiliar to me. I am grateful for the research available, there’s always more to learn! 

     Depending on what part of the country you live in, these birds can be common and perhaps a nuisance as they await alongside humans for the opening of big box stores. In Seattle, for instance, once the doors open at a mega-superstore, they fly in to seek shelter from the elements or to score crumbs off the floor from its indoor café. 

     My experience with Brewer’s Blackbirds is very different. I’ve never seen them waiting for stores to open, let alone hanging out anywhere near them in my area. The invasive House Sparrow makes up for that. But on July 5th, I observed two female Brewer's Blackbirds tending to a nesting site in Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota, a location far from urbanization. 

     The two blackbirds were near a roadside adjacent to agricultural fields. One female was perched on a wooden post surrounded by tall grass. Her wings were drooped, and she was frequently looking downwards. Another female flew in with what looked to be a grasshopper. She landed on a barbed wire fence close to the other female. Soon both were side by side on the fence as if the grasshopper was under inspection. Within moments, the blackbird with the grasshopper disappeared into the tall grass below. 

     Brewer’s Blackbirds nest in colonies, so it makes sense that there was more than one adult near the supposed nest, or nests. However, only observing two females and no males, I wonder if the colony consisted of a maximum of two nests. Brewer’s Blackbirds can nest in colonies as large as 100 nests. The colony I observed was nowhere near that. 

     Over time, Brewer’s Blackbirds have adapted to human behavior, and perhaps the birds in Sax-Zim Bog have learned the safety of nesting near roadside ditches and barbed wire fences. The combination of the two might allow them to stay relatively clear of nest destruction when farmers plow their crops; while the low presence of automobile traffic in remote farming country adds another layer of protection for reproductive success.

     Stay wild, my friends.

References

A Birding Interview with John Marzluff. (2019, April). Birding, 51,(2), 24-28. 

"Brewer’s Blackbird." Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All About Birds. Retrieved Aug. 9, 2024 from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brewers_Blackbird/lifehistory# 

Horn, Henry S. “Social Behavior of Nesting Brewer’s Blackbirds.” The Condor, vol. 72, no. 1, 1970, pp. 15–23. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1366470. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024. 

Kreiner, J. (2020). Legions of pigs in the early medieval west. Yale University Press.