Field Guide : Brewer's Blackbird (Male)
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
When I moved to San Francisco from New York, one of the first things that caught my eye were the, erm, eyes of male Brewer’s blackbirds. The bird’s ivory iris appears almost radiant in its dark setting of eggplant purple. And the eye wasn’t the only bit of the Brewer’s that gleamed! Depending on the light and the viewer’s angle, the “purple head” and “greenish-black body” – the typical descriptors found in many field guides – are revealed to be more of a technicolor dreamcoat! The aubergine (the name for the color and for eggplant in most of the world) of the bird’s head is flecked with lavender in sunlight, and those colors along with cornflower blue flash over the whole bird on a bright day. The “greenish-black” body is also shown to be more of a teal, alternately sooty or powdery. As light plays over the bird, this complex of colors dazzles one moment – with all the bars of this color column apparent at once – and then diminishes, giving the impression of that less dramatic description, a purplish head and greenish-black body. Even in the shadows, though, when the bird’s common name may seem most fitting, that ivory eye still sparkles! Because the ivory of the eye represents the smallest percentage of color in the Brewer’s blackbird profile, it is shown in this color column as the bottom-most bar. (I’ve included a detail shot of the color column, as the scale and quality of images online makes the base bars difficult to see.)
Although I was unfamiliar with this (very) successful blackbird species when I moved west, the Brewer’s blackbird has been steadily expanding its range east for decades. It still doesn’t make regular appearances in the mid-Atlantic region, where I grew up, but it’s now common in the southeast United States during winter months. The blackbirds were able to push eastward because of forest clearing and agricultural expansion; in particular, they valued highways, rail lines, and electrical transmission cuts, making use of the “fringe” habitat created by such human interventions in the landscape. The same range extension has been noted in Canada. I occasionally see Brewer’s blackbirds in undeveloped settings, but typically I associate them with downtown parks, golf courses, and sidewalks – these are urban and suburban birds that thrive alongside humans.
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
When I moved to San Francisco from New York, one of the first things that caught my eye were the, erm, eyes of male Brewer’s blackbirds. The bird’s ivory iris appears almost radiant in its dark setting of eggplant purple. And the eye wasn’t the only bit of the Brewer’s that gleamed! Depending on the light and the viewer’s angle, the “purple head” and “greenish-black body” – the typical descriptors found in many field guides – are revealed to be more of a technicolor dreamcoat! The aubergine (the name for the color and for eggplant in most of the world) of the bird’s head is flecked with lavender in sunlight, and those colors along with cornflower blue flash over the whole bird on a bright day. The “greenish-black” body is also shown to be more of a teal, alternately sooty or powdery. As light plays over the bird, this complex of colors dazzles one moment – with all the bars of this color column apparent at once – and then diminishes, giving the impression of that less dramatic description, a purplish head and greenish-black body. Even in the shadows, though, when the bird’s common name may seem most fitting, that ivory eye still sparkles! Because the ivory of the eye represents the smallest percentage of color in the Brewer’s blackbird profile, it is shown in this color column as the bottom-most bar. (I’ve included a detail shot of the color column, as the scale and quality of images online makes the base bars difficult to see.)
Although I was unfamiliar with this (very) successful blackbird species when I moved west, the Brewer’s blackbird has been steadily expanding its range east for decades. It still doesn’t make regular appearances in the mid-Atlantic region, where I grew up, but it’s now common in the southeast United States during winter months. The blackbirds were able to push eastward because of forest clearing and agricultural expansion; in particular, they valued highways, rail lines, and electrical transmission cuts, making use of the “fringe” habitat created by such human interventions in the landscape. The same range extension has been noted in Canada. I occasionally see Brewer’s blackbirds in undeveloped settings, but typically I associate them with downtown parks, golf courses, and sidewalks – these are urban and suburban birds that thrive alongside humans.
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
When I moved to San Francisco from New York, one of the first things that caught my eye were the, erm, eyes of male Brewer’s blackbirds. The bird’s ivory iris appears almost radiant in its dark setting of eggplant purple. And the eye wasn’t the only bit of the Brewer’s that gleamed! Depending on the light and the viewer’s angle, the “purple head” and “greenish-black body” – the typical descriptors found in many field guides – are revealed to be more of a technicolor dreamcoat! The aubergine (the name for the color and for eggplant in most of the world) of the bird’s head is flecked with lavender in sunlight, and those colors along with cornflower blue flash over the whole bird on a bright day. The “greenish-black” body is also shown to be more of a teal, alternately sooty or powdery. As light plays over the bird, this complex of colors dazzles one moment – with all the bars of this color column apparent at once – and then diminishes, giving the impression of that less dramatic description, a purplish head and greenish-black body. Even in the shadows, though, when the bird’s common name may seem most fitting, that ivory eye still sparkles! Because the ivory of the eye represents the smallest percentage of color in the Brewer’s blackbird profile, it is shown in this color column as the bottom-most bar. (I’ve included a detail shot of the color column, as the scale and quality of images online makes the base bars difficult to see.)
Although I was unfamiliar with this (very) successful blackbird species when I moved west, the Brewer’s blackbird has been steadily expanding its range east for decades. It still doesn’t make regular appearances in the mid-Atlantic region, where I grew up, but it’s now common in the southeast United States during winter months. The blackbirds were able to push eastward because of forest clearing and agricultural expansion; in particular, they valued highways, rail lines, and electrical transmission cuts, making use of the “fringe” habitat created by such human interventions in the landscape. The same range extension has been noted in Canada. I occasionally see Brewer’s blackbirds in undeveloped settings, but typically I associate them with downtown parks, golf courses, and sidewalks – these are urban and suburban birds that thrive alongside humans.
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.