May: Yellow-headed Blackbird in flight

Yellow-headed Blackbird in flight
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Sierra Valley, CA [taken June 2007]

This is a moment captured from our first summer birding trip in the Sierra, led by the inestimable Bob Power. We parked at a bend in the road through a marshy/agricultural area and walked back towards the main concentration of reeds. Yellow-headed blackbirds were flying, perched, feeding, interacting all around us. Their calls are nasal, chirpy, and even buzzy like a log going through a sawmill, so different from the Red-winged blackbirds we hear in our local marshes. This shot shows a lot about the anatomy of a bird -- look at the way the breast muscles are activated when the wings are fully extended behind the bird, ready to provide air braking for the imminent landing in the reeds.