I first spied him this morning, sitting on top of the pine tree outside my back fence and managed to get this really nice shot of him. But then he came down into my yard for a visit, so I was pretty psyched!
This, my friends, is a Yellow-Headed Blackbird…or a Xanthocephalus, if you are close personal friends. He’s a male – which we know because of his snazzy saffron-yellow head and chest over a black body (the female’s body is brown). They are typically 9.5 inches long, with a 15-inch wingspan.
Per the Audubon website, these guys “breed across the upper Midwest, north and westward through much of lower Canada, and west and southward into Arizona and New Mexico. Wintering birds range in flocks from mid-California through the southern third of Arizona, New Mexico, and south through the farmlands of Mexico”.
So I’m guessing he’s just heading south from Sunny California and passing through Boulder City on his way!
