Red-winged Blackbird

The red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is a passerine bird found by the family Icteridae in most of North America and much of Central America. It creates scattered communities from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Peru, Peru and Guatemala in western El Salvador, northwest Honduras, and northwest Costa Rica. It may be wintering north as far as Pennsylvania and British Columbia, but migratory northern populations typically travel south into Mexico and south America. Claims have been made that it is North America's most abundant living soil animal, as population-counting censuses of wintering red-winged blackbirds frequently show that loose flocks can exceed more than a million birds per flock, and that the overall number of peak-year breeding pairs throughout North and Central America can exceed 250 million. That ranks among the best known wild bird species in the world as well. The red-winged blackbird is sexually dimorphic; while the female is a dark brown nonscript, the male is all black with a red shoulder and a yellow wing bar; seeds and insects make up much of the red-winged diet of blackbird.

The common name for the red-winged blackbird is taken from the eye-catching red shoulder bands, or the often black male epaulettes, which are visible while the bird is flying or displaying. The male also wears a sleeping, neon-yellow wingbar. Under the female is blackish-brown, and paler. The man is less so than the feminine. The males of the bicolored subspecies lack the yellow wing patch of the nominate race, and the females are much darker than the females that are assigned. Young birds mimic the monarch, but they are paler below and have white fringes of feather. Both sexes wind up with stunning billing. The length of the tail is natural, and pointing. All of the heads are grey, except for bill and foot. And the male is unmistakable in the far west of the USA where the tricolored blackbird occurs.

Males in that genus have a darker red epaulette, with white tips and not yellow tips. The classification of females from tricolored, bicolored, red-shouldered, and red-winged blackbirds in areas where more than one form is present can be difficult. When field markings are not readily apparent in flight, red-winged can be differentiated from less closely related icterides, such as common grackle and brown-headed cowbird, by their distinct shape and ondulating flight. Red-winged distribution of blackbirds extends from southern Alaska to southern Yucatan peninsula, and from the west coast of North America to the east side of the continent. Red-winged blackbirds on the northern ends of the range are migratory, spending winters in the Southern United States and Central America. Migration starts periodically in September or October, as early as August. The Western and Central American populations are usually non-migrants.

The red-winged blackbird races over open grassy fields. It usually prefers wetlands, and inhabits both freshwater and saltwater marshes, particularly where there are cattails. It also occurs in dry upland areas where meadows, prairies and ancient fields populate. Red-winged blackbird calls are a slurred, terrr-eee sound. The male's song is a scratchy oak-a-lee, followed by a display of his red shoulder patches similar to those of other western species, including bicolored blackbirds. The female also sings, usually scolding a chit chit chit cheer teer teerr. Nearly all North American raptors take adult or young red-winged blackbirds, including barn owls that usually take only small rodents, and none larger than a red-winged male northern saw-whet owl. Accipiter hawks are among their most aggressive predators and are locally one of the preferred classes of short-tailed hawk prey. Blackbird nests also provide a home for crows, ravens, magpies and herons. Many blackbird enemies of all ages and their nests include rat serpents, raccoons, mink, foxes, frogs.

The Marsh wrens consume the eggs, drink from them at least sometimes, and peck out the nestlings to death. The reddish and omnivorous blackbird. This primarily feeds on plant materials, including weed seeds and waste grains such as corn and rice, but about a quarter of its diet is made up of insects and other small animals, and more so during the breeding season. It prefers insects such as dragonflies, damsels, bees, moths, and flies but also eats snails, frogs, eggs, carrion, worms, spiders, and mollusks. The red-winged blackbird forages insects by collecting them from trees or catching them as they fly. They eat blueberries, blackberries, and other fruits in the morning. These birds would be drawn by mixtures of bread and food, and the backyard bird feeders suit. In late summer and in the autumn, the red-winged blackbird breeds in open fields, mixed with grackles, cowbirds and starlings in flocks that can number in thousands.