Great-tailed Grackle

When we were Las Vegas, Nevada,  a couple of weeks ago, I did get to do a little bird watching.
At the Flamingo Casino and Hotel I was able to see both the female and male Great-tailed Grackle.

 

Female
This grackle is the largest.  

The female is similar to mail in all ways but less pronounced. The female is dark brown above with some iridescence on back and wings, head and underparts from pale to warm brown..She has the bright yellow eye as well.

Male, great-tailed grackle.  He appears disproportionately small headed, and has a bill almost as long as head, and neck is thin in relation to the large body.  His tail is very long and graduated for over half its length. 

His eye is bright yellow.  They have a lout voice and and seem to sing all the time.

Hiding in the trees.

Kingfisher spotted today

This afternoon on the way home from doing an errand, Ron saw a kingfisher sitting on a wire. We were on a road that does cross a steam and plenty of corn and bean fields.

We were afraid he might had flown by the time we turned around.
Nope, he stayed there.

I had my window down taking the pictures, so we could hear his call.

The sun was going down fast. These are not the greatest pictures, but I will take  them.

They are a large blue gray bird with a white belly. He has a broad blue gray breast band and a ragged crest that can be raised and lowered at will.  We noticed it went up as well as his tail when he was calling.