Category: Red-winged Blackbirds
Red-winged Blackbirds And Fall Colors
Male Red-winged Blackbird In Flight
Odds And Ends From Recent Trips To Farmington Bay WMA
Red-tailed Hawk With A “Double-decker” Upper Bill
Antelope Island Potpourri From Yesterday Morning
Red-winged Blackbird Trying To Get At Those Pesky Sunflower Seeds
Female Red-winged Blackbird Basking In The Warming Sun
A Couple Of Blackbirds (two species)
Peachy Female Red-winged Blackbird (and my FOY Swainson’s Hawk)
Birds Being Fooled By Our Warm Winter?
Red-winged Blackbird (with a look at exposure and depth of field)
Red-winged Blackbird In Flight
White-crowned Sparrows – Sunflower Gluttony And Crossed Bills
A local pumpkin farmer (Pack Farms) plants sunflowers along the periphery of his pumpkin field and each fall they provide a messy bounty for a variety of birds. Most species seem to be tidy eaters but the juvenile White-crowned Sparrows are an exception.
The orange in the background of these shots is – you guessed it – pumpkins.
Red-winged Blackbird With a Crossed Bill
This morning while out photographing birds at a local wildlife refuge I came across this Red-winged Blackbird with a strongly crossed bill, which of course is not typical of the species. I’ve seen a few mildly crossed bills in this and other species in the past but never one quite this pronounced in a species where it isn’t “normal”. Red-winged Blackbird with a crossed bill, perched on curley dock There are species of birds in North America that have crossed bills as a species trait – the Red Crossbill and the White-winged Crossbill. Their crossed bills are an adaptation for extracting seeds from cones. Seeing this RWBB with a crossed bill naturally got me thinking about evolution. Variations occur throughout nature since each individual inherits a different combination of genes from its parents. This particular variation would likely be selected against in RWBB’s and would not persist since they do not typically pry seeds from cones. However, one can see how this same variation in the ancestors of todays crossbills would be the genetic fuel for the crossed bill trait they all exhibit today. Ron
Red-winged Blackbirds And Fall Colors
Male Red-winged Blackbird In Flight
Odds And Ends From Recent Trips To Farmington Bay WMA
Red-tailed Hawk With A “Double-decker” Upper Bill
Antelope Island Potpourri From Yesterday Morning
Red-winged Blackbird Trying To Get At Those Pesky Sunflower Seeds
Female Red-winged Blackbird Basking In The Warming Sun
A Couple Of Blackbirds (two species)
Peachy Female Red-winged Blackbird (and my FOY Swainson’s Hawk)
Birds Being Fooled By Our Warm Winter?
Red-winged Blackbird (with a look at exposure and depth of field)
Red-winged Blackbird In Flight
White-crowned Sparrows – Sunflower Gluttony And Crossed Bills
A local pumpkin farmer (Pack Farms) plants sunflowers along the periphery of his pumpkin field and each fall they provide a messy bounty for a variety of birds. Most species seem to be tidy eaters but the juvenile White-crowned Sparrows are an exception.
The orange in the background of these shots is – you guessed it – pumpkins.
Red-winged Blackbird With a Crossed Bill
This morning while out photographing birds at a local wildlife refuge I came across this Red-winged Blackbird with a strongly crossed bill, which of course is not typical of the species. I’ve seen a few mildly crossed bills in this and other species in the past but never one quite this pronounced in a species where it isn’t “normal”. Red-winged Blackbird with a crossed bill, perched on curley dock There are species of birds in North America that have crossed bills as a species trait – the Red Crossbill and the White-winged Crossbill. Their crossed bills are an adaptation for extracting seeds from cones. Seeing this RWBB with a crossed bill naturally got me thinking about evolution. Variations occur throughout nature since each individual inherits a different combination of genes from its parents. This particular variation would likely be selected against in RWBB’s and would not persist since they do not typically pry seeds from cones. However, one can see how this same variation in the ancestors of todays crossbills would be the genetic fuel for the crossed bill trait they all exhibit today. Ron