Perching Birds
Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius
phoeniceus
Description
7-9 1/2" (18-24 cm). Smaller than a
robin. Male is black with bright red shoulder patches. Female and
young are heavily streaked with dusky brown. See Tricolored
Blackbird.
Voice
A rich, musical o-ka-leeee!
Habitat
Marshes, swamps, and wet and dry meadows;
pastures.
Nesting
3-5 pale blue eggs, spotted and scrawled
with dark brown and purple, in a well-made cup of marsh grass or
reeds, attached to growing marsh vegetation or built in a bush in a
marsh.
Range
Breeds from Alaska east across Canada to
Newfoundland and south to northern Baja California, central Mexico,
Gulf Coast, and Florida. Winters regularly across United States
north to British Columbia, Great Lakes, and Pennsylvania.
Discussion
Although primarily a marsh bird, the
Red-winged Blackbird will nest near virtually any body of water and
occasionally breeds in upland pastures. Each pair raises two or
three broods a season, building a new nest for each clutch. After
the breeding season, the birds gather with other blackbirds in
flocks, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Although
blackbirds are often considered pests because they consume grain in
cultivated fields, farmers benefit because the birds consume harmful
insects during the nesting season.
Perching Birds