Euphagus cyanocephalus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Brewer's blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) is a medium-sized New World blackbird. It is named after the ornithologist Thomas Mayo Brewer. Adult males have black plumage with an iridescent purple head and neck and glossy bluish-green highlights on the rest of the body. The feet and legs are black and the eye is bright yellow. The female is brownish-grey with slight hints of the male's iridescence. The female's eyes are dark brown, while the male's is bright yellow. Overall, they resemble the eastern member of the same genus, the rusty blackbird; Brewer's blackbird, however, has a shorter bill and the male's head is iridescent purple. This bird is often mistaken for the common grackle but has a shorter tail. The call is a sharp check which is also distinguishable. This bird is in a different family from the Eurasian blackbird.
Their breeding habitat is open and semi-open areas, often near water, across central and western North America. They are also very common in parking lots or around schools, and easily acclimate to the presence of people. They can live in low elevation, as low as below sea level in Southern California, and elevations as high as 8... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ciudad Juárez | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Brewer's Blackbird sighting in Elk Island National Park on a given day, based on 29 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 115th most-seen of the 161 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brewer's Blackbird in Elk Island National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Elk Island National Park's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain against 20 mm in December.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brewer's Blackbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
16th of 22
Of the 22 parks where we can rate Brewer's Blackbird sightings, Elk Island National Park ranks 16th at under 5%. The best odds are in Yosemite National Park (United States, about 40%), Yellowstone National Park (United States, about 30%) and Death Valley National Park (United States, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Icteridae
The closest relatives of the Brewer's Blackbird that you can see in Elk Island National Park (family Icteridae, New World Blackbirds and Orioles) are Red-winged Blackbird (about 60%), Brown-headed Cowbird (about 30%) and Baltimore Oriole (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brewer's Blackbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Elk Island National Park (29 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
