H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Scrub Blackbird – Latin name: Dives warszewiczi

These birds are found in the arid areas of southwestern Ecuador and western Peru.

Melodious Blackbirds and Scrub Blackbirds are very similar in physical appearance, but cannot breed and have different vocalizations. Another major difference between Melodious Blackbirds and the Scrub Blackbird is that the Scrub Blackbird forages and shares the same area with other pairs without any hostility due to extreme clumping of suitable breeding sites (Orians, 1983). The Cuban Blackbirds (Dives atroviolacea) are also a related species, but have shorter tails and is restricted to Cuba (Jaramillo, 1999).

NOTE: The Scrub Blackbird is a new addition to my Bird List as: #173

Scrub Blackbird

Text © The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – All photographs © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101