The Yellow-Headed Blackbird Flocking with Brewer Blackbirds
The Yellow-headed Blackbird Flocking with Brewer Blackbirds
While passing through Lake Valley on August 12, 1920, about two miles north of Meyers, El Dorado County, a flock of about seventy-five Brewer Blackbirds (Euphagus cyanocephalus) flushed from the road and flew to a lodgepole pine tree in the adjoining field about a hundred yards distant. In their midst was a single Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) showing in striking contrast. I took the bird, which proved to be a young male.
The Yellow-headed Blackbird is frequently associated with Red-winged Blackbirds, and Coues (Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 190) mentions them flocking with Cowbirds, but its presence with Brewer Blackbirds seems rather unusual, and all the more strange as there were no Redwings seen in the vicinity.
Frank N. Bossett
Alameda, California, August 27, 1920
