Brewer's Blackbird

A good friend of mine who lives in the Loring Park area of Minneapolis, and is also quite knowledgeable about birds recently posed a question.  She watched as a red-tailed hawk dined on what some said, was a crow.  Her thought was that it must have been a blackbird.  Who knows...I'll have to ask my good friend and top notch birder, Jim about that.  Do red-tailed hawks eat crows?  I know I have been forced to eat crow many times.  I suppose there are a number of blackbirds it could have been, or maybe even a cowbird?

Brewer's Blackbird

The Brewer's blackbird is the size of a robin, slender with a longish tail, and mostly black, but with that haunting yellowish eye again.  Where do those yellow eyes come from?  We saw many of these guys in Texas, which is their winter range, but they do enjoy Minnesota in the summer and probably love Loring Park, which, due to the pleasant pond with it's accompanying aquatic plants is also home to the Red-wing blackbird.  Look for the Brewer's on your front lawn in the fall.  They go after those acorns from the oak trees, as do the grackles and other blackbirds.