24 November 09
Tricolored Blackbirds
I was able to get over to the Museum of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology at lunch today to do some tricolored blackbird studies. Not only were there prepared skins, but also a couple of birds in the freezer that hadn’t been prepared yet, which I was able to look at for a close look at the bills.
Looking at a tricolored blackbird next to a red-winged, the obvious things — deper crimson epaulette, cream-colored stripe — were eclipsed for me by how very different the bills are. The trike’s is longer and more pointy, the redwing’s shorter and rounder. The quality of the black is different, too. Black is never really black, and the trike’s is more blue (pthalo) versus the cad-yellow-black of the red-winged.
I still absolutely suck at drawing bills.
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Pretty! I hadn’t thought about differences in bill shape between trikes and bikes before – will have to test it out in the field some time…