[Possible/likely] rusty blackbird, Sports Arena Blvd.

I was driving in the parking lot in front of the Target on Sports Arena Blvd this morning at about 11:30 when I spotted an ochre-colored blackbird in the midst of a small group of Brewer’s blackbirds on the side of the road in one of the little grassy areas.
My immediate sense was that it was a female rusty blackbird. All I could see of it in the few seconds I drove past it, besides the reddish coloration, was a pale eye, pale throat and pale supercilium.
But by the time I found a parking place and went back to look for the bird, the flock had moved to another part of the parking lot.

I did not have binoculars with me, but walked the parking lot for 30 minutes or so in the rain trying to re-find the bird.
The flock of somewhere between 60-90 blackbirds was very active.
A lot of the time they roosted on the roof of the Ross department store, but they flew all over the parking lot in that general area.
Traffic in the parking lot was heavy, and by a little after 12:00 the rain was coming down hard enough to make visibility terrible.

My suggestion, if you go to look for this bird, is to go early, before the stores open and the parking lot overflows with SUVs.

As you know, sometimes [rarely?] Brewer’s blackbirds can have a rusty plumage, and I did not have enough of a look at the bird to be sure it was not one of these unusual-plumaged Brewer’s blackbirds.

Stan Walens, San Diego
Dec 5, 2018; 2:25 pm
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports