The same leucistic male Red-winged Blackbird has made sporadic appearances at my feeders for about three years. Unlike most birds, and most blackbirds in particular, he’s easy to identify as an individual because most of the primary feathers and a single secondary feather on his left wing are pure white. And those same feathers remain white from year to year, including through every molt.
When he’s with other blackbirds, as he usually is, he stands out like the proverbial sore thumb.
Two days ago, and the day before that, I saw him at my feeders again for the first time in many months.
He brings other blackbirds when he comes but all of them are exremely shy so the only way I can photograph them is through the dirty glass of my patio door. So nearly all of my photos of him are of poor quality but they document an unusual bird that I’ve become quite fond of.
Here he’s squabbling with other blackbirds at my cylinder feeder.
When his wings are folded it can be hard to see his white feathers so I usually try to photograph him in flight with his left side toward me, which isn’t easy. This is about the best I’ve been able to do.
I hope to see him occasionally throughout the winter. If he follows his usual pattern, he’ll completely disappear during the breeding season. I presume that’s because Red-winged Blackbirds switch to eating mostly insects and spiders that time of year.
It irritates me to have only poor-quality photos in a blog post so…
I’ll provide an update on my attempts to photograph the female Belted Kingfisher that hangs out near the Jordan River.
Here she’s fishing from a twig that hangs out over the water in the early morning before the sun came up over the mountains behind her. At first glance she looks like she’s leaning over so far to her right that it looks like she’s about to topple over into the water. But if you look closely, you’ll see that her feet are pretty much directly below her center of gravity.
Here she’s diving on a fish in much better light with a setting and background I like. I rarely get her in a flight posture like this with her wings in front of her.
Blog followers should know that my primary computer is in the shop with what will probably turn out to be a deceased hard drive. Thankfully, I save my photos elsewhere, so I haven’t lost them. But I’ll likely lose their organization so finding individual photos will be a nightmare for a while.
For reasons I won’t go into, it’s far from easy to publish blog posts from my highly temperamental laptop, which I’m trying to do now.
We’ll see how that goes when I hit the “Publish” button.
Ron
Note: I think I just now solved my “temperamental laptop” problem. The touchpad is highly sensitive and when I’m typing my thumbs keep brushing the touchpad and making my cursor jump around, which causes real mayhem to whatever I’m trying to type or do. So… I just disabled the touchpad.
No loss, I hate touchpads anyway. I use a mouse instead.
What a beautiful bird! So nice to see him again!
Beautiful, thanks for that.
Thanks, Troy.
Hopefully he passes on that genetic trait to some of his offspring and will continue to delight you far into the future.
Wouldn’t that be fun!
You may not think that first photo is good – but I think it is amazing!!!
Your little king fisher is very cute. Good stories to go with your photos as well.
I see your blog mostly after 2-3 PM. You would have to post before 3AM for me to see it in the morning.. Sorry about your equipment problems. My problems were with my printer – so have to get a new one:((. Take care of yourself – and keep these birds coming!
Thanks, Judy. Don’t hold your breath for me to have posts published by 3 AM. That’s a little early, even for me.
Nice that you got another visit from the Red-winged and was laughing looking at the Kingfisher and thinking it sure is nice to have wings when you are about to topple.
Everett, I have other photos where she doesn’t look like she’s about to topple over but I enjoyed seeing her the way she was.
Good to see Leuc is back. And I’m glad I got to see her in person. Also, nice Kingfisher shots!
That’s right, Brett – you did see him in person. I’d forgotten.
“Him” yes, I think it was about 18 months ago.
Nice you have the red-winged black birds back, it’s one I don’t get. The leucistic is neat! I have a Cooper’s pair that are keeping all my birds jumpy. The pair is also very wary but still spend most of the day in my yard or the trees just over the fence line in the gully behind my house. I am glad you are getting over to photograph the kingfisher lovely photos of her. I haven’t gone out much, there aren’t many birds when I do. Hopefully you will be back online with the computer too. Jon crashed one of my drives two days ago with either bad video choices or opening an email he shouldn’t. We keep telling him what not to open or watch, he either doesn’t remember or care, it’s not his computer. Eric was able to get the data off and install a new drive last night. Eric is going to build a computer for Jon and we will ban him from mine. It’s nice having a computer nerd in the house.
Thanks, April. I haven’t been going out much either, other than down near the river which as you know is close, for the same reason. It’s depressing as hell.
I don’t know what the lifespan is of a “normal” RWBB, but this guy is smart enough to return to Chez Dudley, where he’s obviously getting the right nutrition needed to keep him going for a good long time. What a great-looking bird (I love the red & yellow epaulets they all wear), so happy he’s back again.
And — let me be so bold as to suggest her name — “Queenie” is another sight to behold, glad she’s a reliable visitor to the nearby river so you can keep an eye (and camera lens) on her. Fun photos, all of them! ❤️
“I don’t know what the lifespan is of a “normal” RWBB”
Chris, I didn’t know either so I looked it up. Typically they only live about 2 years in the wild but some live much longer – up to 16 years. They have a high mortality rate in the wild.
“Queenie” works for me. She’s definitely haughty.
The second shot of the Kingfisher is a stunner!!
Glad to see your buddy made it back for another year.
Thanks, Kathleen. Me too.
I would rather have a leucistic blackbird “imperfectly” photographed through a dirty window than none at all! Thanks for the photos.
So would I, Mary.
Like all good friends, it looks like your leucistic pal and you have picked up where you left off like no time has elapsed. So glad that he and his entourage have returned to your feeders.
The “queenfisher” is a delight and you nailed both shots! That second shot is pretty exciting — might be time for a “kingfisher hat” on your wall. 😉
“might be time for a “kingfisher hat” on your wall.”
Maybe you’re right, Marty. It’s been a while since I’ve swapped photos there. And it’s not like I don’t have lots to choose from.
Your temperamental laptop came thru for you. Lovely that your blackbird friend reappeared. I’m always puzzled when the bird sites talk about “the oldest known [insert bird here] lived to …” How do they know about the individual bird – I guess thru banding, or captivity, or maybe it’s thru sightings like you can provide with this unique blackbird.
Ms Kingfisher is too beautiful – her tiny feet just make me laugh.
Sorry about your computer issues – you haven’t lost photos, have you? Hope the “stuff” doesn’t overwhelm – it sure can be daunting at times!
Thanks, Carolyn. Daunting indeed.
Nope, I haven’t lost any photos. But finding individual photos is going to be a long and miserable process for a while. Now the photo file numbers will be the only ‘organizational’ aspect I’ll have to work with. And that’s not much.
Cool! 🙂 Glad “he” showed up again after all this time and put on a great display despite the window glass. I didn’t have that luck with the leucistic finch. Kingfisher shots are great – a favorite of mine. The Laptop appears to have worked even if a PITA to use.
Thanks, Judy. I solved my laptop problem. See the explanation I added at the bottom of my post. I’m a laptop dummy but eventually I figure things out. Usually. Well, sometimes…
Post looks good to me Ron. Love getting an update on the well-known visitors. There is something reassuring about that. Like those (sometimes of less than perfect quality) photos of human relations who are important to us, the thing that matters most is that we have the photo to remember the time.
The composition – energy and movement – of that last photo is superb.
Thanks, Michael. I got lucky with the background of that last shot. If I’d moved just a few inches in most any direction there’d be a white house back there.
Ditto Shoreacres. Thanks for taking the trouble to post these great shots.
Thank you, Burrdoo.
It’s a good start to the day to see Feathered Photography pop up
in my inbox, and especially when it features the leucitic blackbird !
What a stunner he is…. in the context of HUMAN xenophobia, it
encourages me to read that the other blackbirds follow his lead to your feeder instead of shunning him for his different appearance,
which is SO BEAUTIFUL !
Kris, I’ve watched to see if the other blackbirds treat him any differently. As far as I can tell, they don’t. He’s just one of the guys.
“It’s a good start to the day to see Feathered Photography pop up
in my inbox…”
Totally agree Kris!
Well, this “publish” worked just fine, and what fun it is to see your special blackbird again. It’s so handsome, and it really is a delight that it’s still around after a relatively long time. Apart from everything else, his appearance is one bit of confirmation for something I’ve come to believe: that birds do have memory, and will return to a favorite feeding area year after year.
I’m in awe of those Kingfisher photos. They’re so beautifully detailed!
Thanks, Shoreacres. The leucistic blackbird showed up at a difficult time for me so his reappearance was like a breath of fresh air. I was delighted to see him again. Made my day and took my mind off of “stuff”.