Hi All,
Recently Brian Bell described a Rusty Blackbird that he and others observed
at Two Rivers Wildlife Center. What caught my eye was the fact the the
eyes(of the first bird identified as a RUBL) were black. I had a rather
mysterious member of the blackbird family around our place in the late fall.
Most of its feathers terminated in a peachy/brownish red fringe. The rest of
the feathers were dark brown, definitely not black. It had black eyes. We
couldn't find any reference that describes the eye of the RUBL, even
juvenile as black. Everything I've found says yellow (or straw) with a black
center.
Is the eye of the sub-adult RUBL yellow? Black? Comments please.
Thanks for the help.
Gail Spitler
Johnsons Landing, BC
spitler at wkpowerlink.com