Butcher Blackbird |top| «QUICK 2024»

That is the Butcher Blackbird. The beautiful, terrible knot where food and music become the same thing.

These birds are passerines (perching birds) about the size of a robin. Males are pale gray above with a black mask that runs across the eyes, white underparts, and distinct black wings with white patches. To an untrained eye, their muted gray-and-white plumage looks harmless. But the black mask gives them the look of a tiny bandit, and their beak tells the real story. Butcher Blackbird

Farmers told children: If you hear a Butcher Blackbird sing before a frost, someone you know is hiding something. The song itself is deceptively sweet—a mimic of warblers and finches. But it ends in a dry rattle, like seeds shaken in a gourd. That is the Butcher Blackbird