Red-Winged Blackbird

Sticking with the wishes of the voting, the red-winged blackbird won by one vote. As promised that will be this weeks topic.

First I want to start by saying that me and my wife went bird watching yesterday. After a trip 90 minutes west, we were at Magee marsh. This is listed as a top spot in the United States to watch the spring migration. The only reason we went was to see a Scarlet Tanager like we saw last year. Well we did not see that but every bird nut in a 100 mile radius was there. So after a few birds we have already seen and fighting the crowd we decided to go to a place that is 7 minutes from our house. Only now it's 97 minutes after the trip west.

Once we got there we were amazed by the number of Orioles we saw. She had to call work before we started and while standing next to her there 25 yards in front of me in a bush was a male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. We're there 5 minutes and already it beat the other place. She got off the phone and we start a slow walk on a trail through the woods that eventually leads to wet lands. We looked up and one of the Bald Eagles that nest there was soaring high over head. As I watched him my wife pointed into a tree and said "that Cardinal sounds strange." With out even lifting my binoculars I could tell it was the Scarlet Tanager we wanted to see. As many times that we had been to this place we never saw one. He stayed for a while and let us enjoy him on an open branch. We went another 20 yards and there was the female Scarlet Tanager 5 yards away. She did not have a care in the world and stayed there even longer than the male. In order to save time and get to the blackbird I'll finish by saying I saw my first Prothonotary Warbler as well as watched a Sandhill Crane sitting on a nest. She finally stood up and there were the two largest eggs I've ever seen. I'll have to cover the rest of the walk in another post.

I did see plenty of Red-Winged Blackbirds. It amazes me how different the male and female look. The male has its familiar flame red shoulder patch bordered in yellow, the female brown above and heavily streaked below with a buff to white eyebrow. Their song is a dead give away. If your familiar with the bird you know it well, if not try doing a google search for a sound byte of it. It truly is one of the nicest songs during the spring and summer.

The red-winged blackbird is a sure sign of spring when they return to the marshes here in NE Ohio. There have been reports of flocks of up to 100,000 birds. I'm not sure how they came up with that number but it's pretty incredible. The males are the first to return and they defend their territory of 1/8 - 1/4 acre by singing from the tops of surrounding vegetation. I witnessed this several times yesterday. Males repeat their song from the tops of cattails while showing off their red and yellow wing bars. Females will then choose a mate and will usually nest over shallow water in a thick stand of reeds or cattails. They build a cup style nest and usually have 2-3 broods a year. They usually lay 3-4 eggs which are greenish blue with brown markings. The incubation period is 10-12 days (the female incubates) and the fledgling stage is 11-14 days and both parents feed the young.

As for food sources they eat insects and seeds. They will come to feeders alone or in flocks that are filled with either cracked corn or some seed mixes.

As far as the migration is concerned, it's a complete migration to southern states, Mexico and Central America.

I hope this helps those of you that have the right habitat in your are and they visit your yard. They truly are a spectacular bird and one to enjoy during the spring and summer. I'll update the poll for next weeks bird and will start by letting you know that the Baltimore Oriole is up 2 votes already from last weeks poll. My goal is to cover the birds which the readers of this blog most want to see. Thanks for stopping by and I'll have anew post sometime next weekend.