NOTES: CAVITY-NESTING BREWER’S BLACKBIRDS

Abstract

Nest sites of the Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) are unusually diverse—on the ground in weedy cover, in stump crevices, shrubs or trees (Verner and Boss, California wildlife and their habitats: Western Sierra Nevada, USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report PSW-37, Berkeley, CA, 1980). In Washington, Dawson and Bowles (The Birds of Washington, Occidental Publishing Co., Washington, 1909:47) described nesting “in cavities near the tops of some giant fir stubs, none of them less than 150 feet from the ground.” We have found no other reference to cavity nesting by Brewer’s Blackbirds.