Something not often brought up is that roadways with any level of traffic to speak of have been at least a linear, local boon across the range of Brewer's Blackbird. Throughout the warmer months, they spend much time foraging for vehicle-struck insects at the fog stripe. This has seemed especially evident to me on interstate highways and the main drags into and of small towns with close-in or outlying insect-producing habitats. These blackbirds will dive upon passersby strolling unwittingly beneath a loose nest colony in overhanging limbery. Hitchcock did well to allude to this species in his literally hair-raising film The Birds. I seem to recall a tavern scene in Bodega Bay where a man swivels and says, "Look, lady--crows, blackbirds, they're all the same to me," to which the older woman ornithologist adroitly rattles off "No, the crow is Corvus brachyrhynchos and the blackbird is Euphagus cyanocephalus."

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On 2 August 2013, I observed a transitioning juvenile (hatch-year) male Brewer's Blackbird that was still mostly brown and somewhat warm and rusty about the head. Its eye had already changed from dark (newly-fledged juveniles) to pale. Young male Brewer's can have pale eyes before they complete their preformative molt, which results in an adult-like male aspect. Beware the rusty-brown blackbird with pale eyes. They aren't always Rusty Blackbirds.

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