Tweeters,

I do believe that these dark-eyed Rusties do exist since I have seen
one myself. My dark eyed Rusty was a female in a flock of 40 normal
Rusties on Sept. 24, 89 in Toronto, Ontario where Brewer's Blackbird
is really rare. I have no idea if this has to do with age, or if a small
proportion of Rusties have dark eyes. In any case identification of
fall/winter birds as rusties should not be difficult, but beware that
there are some Brewer's Blackbirds that can show a substantial amount
of brownish-rust fringes to the feathers. A friend of mine, Peter Burke,
and I are preparing a note on these colourful Brewers, he has seen
the specimens and is writing most of the text so he knows much more than
I do. I think that these bright Brewers never have rusty on the tertials,
but Rusties usually do. Also look for the different proportions of these
two species, I have yet to do measurements, but Rusties appear shorter
tailed, and legged and have larger bills than Brewer's. Many Rusties have
an obvious 'hook' on the tip of the bill, unlike Brewer's. Brewer's looks
a bit longer and slimmer than a Rusty. BTW, Shiny Cowbirds look surprisingly
like Brewer's Blackbirds, if you ever see a dark-eyed male Brewers look at
it again.

On the topic of language and pet peeves, I can't stand it when I see
the name of the country north of Ecuador spelt "Columbia". As far as I
know the official name of the country in Spanish and English is Colombia,
or am I wrong. In any case it really bugs me, no idea why, it just does.

Al Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca
Vancouver, British Colombia.