Today's featured feathered friend is the Red-Winged Blackbird. This abundant and familiar species can be seen year-round across most of the United States. Only the northern most birds migrate south for the winter. While growing up, we fondly remember their raspy "oak-a-lee" call as a sure sign of spring. Their preferred habitat is around wetlands where tall grasses, reeds and cattails are present. If you are near a marshy area, you should see them.
For most of the species we have featured on our blog, the males and females are similar in appearance. That is hardly the case for the Red-Winged Blackbird. For them, their cone-shaped bills are similar and that's about it. The male is glossy-black with beautiful red and yellow shoulder patches. The female is streaked in brown with a buffy eyebrow. Males are significantly larger than females. The average male is around 9 inches in length (female is around 7), weighs about 2 1/2 ounces (female is about 1 1/2) with a wingspan of over 15 inches (female is over 12). Immature Redwings resemble adult females.
During the winter months our backyard is filled with a large mixed flock of Redwings, Brown-Headed Cowbirds and Common Grackles, often over 200 birds. They empty our many feeders daily. The noisy calls of that many birds is nearly deafening, but you can easily pick out the raspy trill of the Redwings. When all the birds get spooked and take flight, the sound of hundreds of wingbeats at the same time is like a clap of thunder.
Click on the links below to learn more about this species. Enjoy some of our favorite photos of the Red-Winged Blackbird.....tweet.....tweet!!
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| Male taking flight. (Taken 10/12/14, The Celery Fields, Sarasota FL) |
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| Female perched on reeds. (Taken 1/12/14, The Celery Fields, Sarasota FL) |
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Immature Male
(Taken 11/20/12, our backyard)
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| Male displaying on a boardwalk railing. (Taken 4/12/14, The Celery Fields, Sarasota FL) |
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| Female blending in with her favorite habitat. (Taken 10/12/14, The Celery Fields, Sarasota FL) http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-winged_blackbird/id http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_blackbird |
