bird visitor last January

I was looking at photos from a year ago, and found this -

Last January while getting ready for work on a snowy morning I saw this bird. It's funny, because I was in a hurry, but it struck me that he wasn't familiar. He was a blackbird, stocky like a cowbird but not brown headed like them. He wasn't iridescent like the grackles, but a sooty black which I thought was pretty, and there may have been two or three of these birds, but just one by the time I got my camera. I took some pictures and went to work.

Here's the other photo:

I tried looking him up in books there and online. A bronze cowbird?  But they're a southwestern bird. I couldn't figure it out, so called the Audubon Society, who gave me the email address of a bird expert.

Meanwhile, it turns out Cyndi saw the same bird (she lives a mile away) and also took photos (better than mine).

photo by Cindy Lou Who

The bird man got back to me and said it was most likely a Rusty Blackbird, which lives in Canada and can be seen in winters along the east coast of the U.S., but they aren't that common. Here is a clip of one in Central Park. I'd sure like to see one again.