These Tristram’s Grackles, or Tristram’s Starlings, at Masada are trying to get a drop of water from one of the faucets supplying the tourists with lukewarm water during their visit to the site.
Tristram's Grackles at Madada. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.
Henry B. Tristram wrote The Natural History of the Bible in 1868. In 1884 he wrote Fauna and Flora of Palestine.
A bird commonly seen at Masada, along the shore of the Dead Sea, is named for Tristram. The black bird has some distinctive orange feathers, as you can see in the bird on the right.
Psalm 63 is said to be “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.”
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1 ESV)
Ferrell's Travel Blog 
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