Brewer’s Blackbird, Fletcher, NC, March 14, 2020

When I participated in the Henderson County Christmas Count in December 2019 I was assigned the territory in and around the town of Fletcher.  This was my first time on the count and I had never birded around Fletcher, so I made a couple scouting trips to try to find the best sites to bird on the count.  One of the sites I found was an area of agricultural fields covering about 150 acres north of Rockwell Drive.  Plus the fields were surrounded by very nice hedgerows and thickets, many of which were posted with signs noting that the lands were designated as conservations areas by the state of North Carolina.  During these scouting trips and the count itself I found good numbers of sparrows in the brush (including uncommon White-crowned), and flocks of Pipits and Killdeer in the fields. 

Given the nice habitat I continued to bird this site throughout the winter and into spring.  On one trip I found a nice flock of Snipe in a wet portion of one of the fields.  And twice I found rare wintering Vesper Sparrows – including 3 together on one visit.  Then I found an excellent wetlands that looked great for rare migrants like Sedge Wren and Nelson’s Sparrow, and maybe even a Virginia Rail.  Though on my visits I only found Swamp Sparrows.  So far at least.

As the weather warmed I would typically spot good-sized flocks of Blackbirds around the fields – both Red-wings and Grackles.  And often there were a few Rusty’s mixed in.  I’m always hopeful for a rare Yellow-headed in with the Red-wings, so I would spend a bit of time scouring those flocks for something different.  That was exactly the case on March 14 when a flock of Red-wings was feeding in the corn stubble.  While watching them leapfrog across the field I spotted a pair of very glossy birds mixed in.  They were roughly the size of the Red-wings so too small to be Grackles.  And it was a gray day so there was no sun to enhance the irridesence of a Rusty.  I quickly thought I might have a pair of male Brewer’s Blackbirds but needed better looks. 

I continued to follow the flock and finally got close enough to re-spot the glossy blackbirds.  They were two very glossy birds, roughly Red-wing sized, with yellow eyes.  (I often say that male Brewer’s remind me of miniature Grackles.)  Plus there were 2 females with them – uniform grayish-tan with dark eyes.  I indeed had found a group of 2 male and 2 female Brewer’s Blackbirds.  A rarity for the NC mountains, though not completely unexpected.

My statebird map for Brewer’s Blackbird is inserted below.  States highlighted in blue are those where I’ve seen this species; cross-hatched states are those where Brewer’s is regular though I haven’t yet seen them.  Finally, the tan-colored states of MD and NC are those where I’ve seen Brewer’s as a rarity.  

Brewer’s Blackbird was number 287 for my NC statelist.  And another great bird for the Rockwell Drive ag fields.