Idaho has a somewhat surprising 15 species of blackbirds (family Icteridae). There are only 106 species in the family on the entire planet, so that’s not too bad. But five species are accidental ...

Brown-headed cowbirds are obligate brood parasites. That means they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving all the hard work of incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks to somebody else ...

Blackbirds always seem to get a bad rap. As the late Rodney Dangerfield was fond of saying, they “get no respect” in the bird world. I for one would argue that the blackbirds are an amazing group of ...

My first experience with a classic western wetland bird harkened back to the days of yesteryear. It was a cool, early spring morning in the Colorado foothills. I was walking along the edge of a large ...

Bird identification is easiest when the common name of the bird matches its most obvious physical feathers. The yellow-headed blackbird (scientific name Xanthocéphalus xanthocéphalus) is a good ...

Blackbirds tend to get overlooked because they are, well, black. We prefer species with more color – red, orange, yellow, blue and green (if you can find that color outside the tropics). And if you ...

Autumn heralds its arrival with all manner of colorful cues: Tree leaves explode into brilliance; gray squirrels feverishly hoard food supplies;... Sep 05, 2020 — Autumn heralds its arrival with all ...