The Blue-black Grassquit is a common visitor in our garden. This small bird (10 cm) in the tanager family can be found in the fields and along the canals where there are high grasses. The male is shiny blue/black and the female and young are brown with stripes on their chest.
a female blue-black grassquit
The males have a peculiar jumping display: they jump up, fly straight up and wisthle 'srio' and then come back to the place where they started. This behaviour is probably to defend its territory and attract females but it also attracts predators. Predation are the main cause of breeding failure. Both male and female build their nest which is a small cup made out of rootlets in low, complex vegetation close to the ground.
These birds are not shy at all. I was able to get really close to this one to take a couple of nice pictures. What I noticed later when I was looking at these, how intense black their black parts are. They don't seem to reflect any light at all.
Thank you for visiting my blog and happy birding.
