{"id":4986,"date":"2012-05-13T03:55:09","date_gmt":"2012-05-13T09:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4986"},"modified":"2026-02-02T09:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:28:17","slug":"brewers-blackbirds-displaying-and-nesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/05\/13\/brewers-blackbirds-displaying-and-nesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewer’s Blackbirds Displaying and Nesting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brewer’s Blackbirds<\/h2>\n

\"MaleMale Brewer’s Blackbird displaying – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

While out on Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a> on Friday I spotted a male Brewer’s Blackbird on top of a rabbitbrush, the light was just great for viewing and photographing the iridescent teals, blues, greens and purples that can show up on these “black” birds. I was even more tickled when the blackbird started to display because that really made the iridescence even more delightful. I have a lovely series of photos of this male now.<\/p>\n

I can’t say that the call of the male while displaying is enchanting or melodious\u00a0but I am almost certain the female Brewer’s Blackbirds must think so.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Brewer’s Blackbird with nesting material – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This female Brewer’s Blackbird is the mate of the male above, she flew up from the other side of the road with nesting material in her bill and perched for a few moments before flying into another bush with the twig. When the female left the male followed her across the road, she went down onto the ground and he perched high watching over her and when she flew back to the nest with more nesting material he followed her and stayed close. That behavior happened several times. I wish the female had perched a bit closer with her nesting material than she did but I was still pleased to get a series of images of her with this twig.<\/p>\n

All in all it was great fun photographing these Brewer’s Blackbirds displaying and nesting on Antelope Island.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Brewer\u2019s Blackbird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While out on Antelope Island State Park on Friday I spotted a male Brewer’s Blackbird on top of a bush, the light was just great for viewing and photographing the iridescent teals, blues, greens and purples that can show up on these “black” birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,420,1022,26],"tags":[4004,3813,3483,4338,779,4263,4070,4062,3976,440],"class_list":["post-4986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-brewers-blackbirds","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-brewers-blackbird","tag-displaying","tag-euphagus-cyanocephalus","tag-female","tag-male","tag-nesting","tag-nesting-materials"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brewers-black-bird-male-mia-mcpherson-3877.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1iq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14969,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/05\/15\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying\/","url_meta":{"origin":4986,"position":0},"title":"Brewer’s Blackbird male displaying","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A simple post this morning of a Brewer's Blackbird male displaying that I photographed on a bright day in May out on Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brewer's Blackbird male displaying","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-0048.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-0048.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"October 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One year ago today it was slow on Antelope Island, not many birds were close enough to photograph but on the way home I spotted this female Brewer's Blackbird on some rocks near one of the bridges on the causeway to the island.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brewer's Blackbird female taking a stroll","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/brewers-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-3773.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/brewers-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-3773.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/brewers-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-3773.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/brewers-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-3773.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1800,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/30\/bye-bye-blackbirds\/","url_meta":{"origin":4986,"position":3},"title":"Bye Bye Blackbirds? The USDA Is Killing Birds With DRC-1339","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently the USDA accepted responsibility for a smaller die off in South Dakota which brought to light a little known program called \"Bye bye Blackbird\" which uses DRC-1339, a poison that is also called an avicide.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Brewer's Blackbird displaying","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4638,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/16\/brewers-blackbirds\/","url_meta":{"origin":4986,"position":4},"title":"Brewer’s Blackbirds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Brewer's Blackbirds may not be the most well known of the Blackbird family; I am fairly certain that the Red-winged Blackbirds have that claim to fame, but they are beautiful and interesting subjects to photograph.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Brewer's Blackbird on fence post","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-3186.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-3186.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-3186.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60787,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/10\/12\/male-brewers-blackbird-close-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":4986,"position":5},"title":"Male Brewer\u2019s Blackbird Close Up","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I was able to take close up images of a male Brewer's Blackbird in the kind of light that showed all of its beautiful iridescent colors with the silky blue water of a pond in the background.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brewer's Blackbird close up, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/brewers-blackbird-close-up-mia-mcpherson-7674.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/brewers-blackbird-close-up-mia-mcpherson-7674.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/brewers-blackbird-close-up-mia-mcpherson-7674.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/brewers-blackbird-close-up-mia-mcpherson-7674.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}