A unique male Red-Winged Blackbird with unusual feather colors and patterns.
I first noticed this bird at my feeder last winter, but was unable to capture a close enough shot of him. Until I captured this shot of him while leaning out of my computer room window, I had not seen him since the winter before. I was shocked when I saw him and captured a few pics of him before he took off. Unfortunately, it was rather dark and rainy out so my shutter speed was slow. Thankfully however, I had my flash on which helped out a lot!

View much larger on a dark background here

“PHOTO INFORMATION”

Taken on Wed Jan 3/12 at 11:28am on south east Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.
Camera, Canon 7D
Lens, Canon EF 100-400 L IS USM lens.
Taken at, 1/160’s, hand held using lens stabilizer, f/5.6, 400 mm, iso 800, man white bal. Cropped some of the right side out, so as to get a closer view of this strange marked and shaded bird. Sharpened via lab mode, lightness channel, unsharp mask.

“ABOUT RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS”

Unlike this unique color patterned male, Red-Winged Blackbirds sport glossy black plumage, with conspicuous orange red shoulder patches, bordered below with a yellow edge.
Females are quite different being brown on the upper parts and heavily streaked under parts. Females have a pale eyebrow. Immature males look similar to adult females, but darker with an orange shoulder patch bordered with white. Immature females look like adult females.

Red-Winged Blackbirds breed from SE Alaska across Canada and United States, and southwards to Central America. It winters from south Canada, British Columbia, S Ontario and Nova Scotia, and southwards to Costa Rica.

Red-Winged Blackbirds nest in thick vegetation, in freshwater marshes, wetlands and grassy areas. It forages in orchards, open woodland patches and fields.