Red-winged blackbird

“ Blackbirds are social creatures, and where we find one nest, four or five others may be looked for near by. The red-winged blackbird is a mormon in very fact, and often a solitary male bird may be seen guarding a colony of three or four nests, each with an attending female. A sentiment of altruism seems indeed not unknown, as I have seen a female give a grub to one of a hungry nestful, before passing on to brood her own eggs, yet unhatched.
While looking for the blackbirds’ nests we shall come across numerous round, or oval, masses of dried weeds and grass—mice homes we may think them ”

“ It even seems to shun the company of its own kind and, unlike the red-winged blackbird, is seldom seen in large flocks. It is only in the spring that we may observe even small flocks from “whence issues a confused medley of whistles, sweeter and higher-pitched than the best efforts of the redwings.” ”

“ They are social birds, that is, they go in flocks. Fond as they are of society, however, there is one time when they are willing to be a little apart from the blackbird world. That is when they are nesting and rearing a young family. Two interesting birds of this family are the red-winged blackbird and the cow-blackbird or cowbird. ”

“ Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind reciprocates its suspicion.
The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home, according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. ”

“ Kingbirds, phoebe birds, cowbirds, Baltimore orioles, chipping sparrows, robins, English sparrows, meadow larks, crows, golden-winged woodpeckers, and quail eat the army worm, but of all these helpers, none is so valuable for this work as the red-winged blackbird and the crow blackbird. ”

“ At first he was quite docile, taking his food from my hand and even allowing some of his feathered companions to feed him; but in a few weeks he grew so wild and manifested such a fierce desire for the outdoor world that I was glad to carry him out to the woods and give him his freedom. A young red-winged blackbird and a pair of meadowlarks developed a different disposition. ”

“ The nest is plastered [213] inside with mud; four or six blue eggs, speckled with black, are laid. The bird feeds mainly on insects. It is a mocking bird, but not so good a songster as the song-thrush. In confinement it can be taught.
The American Crow-blackbird or Purple Grackle is restricted to the region east of the Rockies, the Blue-headed Grackle is confined west of the Mississippi, while the Rusty Grackle pervades the whole continent.
The Red-winged Blackbird breeds in Mexico and North America south of the Barron Grounds; winters in southern half of United States and south to Costa Rica. ”

“ Afterwards I shot three more at one shot, but only one female amid hundreds of these Yellow-headed Blackbirds. They are quite abundant here, feeding on the surplus grain that drops from the horses' troughs; they walked under, and around the horses, with as much confidence as if anywhere else. When they rose, they generally flew to the very tops of the tallest trees, and there, swelling their throats, partially spreading their wings and tail, they issue their croaking note, which is a compound, not to be mistaken, between that of the Crow Blackbird and that of the Red-winged Starling. ”

“ Cambridge, A.V., one record, Oct. Glen Ellyn, A.V., May 21, 1898. SE. Minn., common S.R., Apl. 21.
Hanging their cradle nest in the quill-reeds or rushes, the Yellow-heads are not found far from it until the young take wing. The male entertains his mate with a variety of strange calls and whistles, but leaves to her the hatching of the brown speckled eggs and care of the young while they are in the nest. Like other Blackbirds they migrate and winter in flocks.
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
Agelaius phœniceus phœniceus. Case 5, Figs. 5, 6
The male in spring and early summer is unmistakable ”

“ Sternberg reports having seen one at Camp 11 before our arrival. Mr. Farley lists it at Red Deer and Camrose.
106.★ Agelaius phœniceus. Red-winged Blackbird.—Not very common but occurring in most of the suitable localities visited by us. More common on the prairie level where sloughs are more numerous than in the valley. Specimens from Camp 1 and 4. After comparing these and other prairie specimens with eastern birds I can only say that there is a larger percentage of oversized birds amongst them than in the East. ”

“ The male has a dark-brown head and a bright greenish-black back and wings, but the female is so much lighter in color that you would hardly believe that they belong to the same species. These birds are very abundant in the spring and summer, and may be seen in flocks flying and feeding in company with the red-winged blackbirds. They are often found among the cattle and sheep in the pastures and barn-yards, and they derive all of their common names from this habit. ”

“ As a group the wood warblers (Compsothlypidae) probably travel more in mixed companies than do any other single family of North American birds. The flocks are likely to be made up of several species in spring and fall with both adults and young. Sometimes swallows, sparrows, blackbirds, and some of the shore birds also migrate in mixed flocks. In fall, great flocks of blackbirds frequently sweep south across the Plains States, and occasionally one flock will contain bronzed grackles, red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, and Brewer's blackbirds. ”

“ Male, black and white; female, brown and gray.
This species is often known as the White-winged Blackbird, not because it bears any resemblance to any of the Blackbirds, nor because any of the habits are the same, but simply because of its plumage. They are very gregarious and usually fly in flocks even in nesting time.
They seem to be very methodical and well trained; if one of a flock takes wing, the entire flock rises simultaneously and in a very compact body they fly until some leader chooses the next stopping place, when they as suddenly alight. ”

“ Liking either heat or cold (he is fond of wintering in Florida, but often retreats to the north while the marshes are still frozen) ; enjoying not only the company of large flocks of his own kind with whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can scrape acquaintance; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded, inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting; satisfied with cut-worms, grubs, and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food — the blackbird is an impressive and helpful example of how to get the best out of life. ”

“ With his glossy coat and yellow beak the Blackbird is a handsomer bird than the Thrush; his food is much the same: he builds his nest in similar places; he is a great glutton when gooseberries are ripe, and his rich mellow song is highly inspiriting. But he is suspicious and wary; however hard pressed he may be by hunger, you will rarely see him hunting for food in the open field. He prefers the solitude and privacy of 'the bush'. In a furze-brake, a coppice, a wooded water-course, or a thick hedge-row, he chooses his feeding ground, and allows no sort of partnership. ”

“ All nature claps its hands in pride and ecstasy.
With a hurried Cha, cha, cha, cha! the blackbird leaves the stone wall—a cock-bird, black as jet—to attend his lady on the park’s surface. A rollicking sprightliness characterises his movements; his tone is sharp, full of intricacies, hard to interpret. In autumn, when the nests are empty, how delightful to walk through the copse—a clump of dwarfed trees, everything in repose. ”

“ The Blackbird settled on a bough close to the Rook, and as he did so he noticed some swallows skimming over the lawn far below them. They were beautiful birds, their blue-black plumage glinted in the sunshine, and now and 41 then a quick turn displayed their brown throats and white breasts. They were darting hither and thither, so rapidly that the eye could hardly follow them, catching the many-winged insects as they flew by. Then they would suddenly dart off to the topmost gables of the old mansion, where their compact mud nests could be plainly seen against the dark gray stones. ”

“ The crops of sweet singing Blackbirds are supposed to hold the souls of those in purgatory until the judgment day; and whenever the Blackbird's notes are particularly shrill, these parched and burning souls are imploring for rain, which never fails of coming in response to the bird cries for their relief. ”

“ American blackbirds do not sing well; the so-called crow-blackbird, so common in flocks in autumn, makes a noise like tonsillitis, or as if he had a boy’s voice in process of changing, or as if he were a hinge that needed oiling. Our redwing blackbird, with his scarlet epaulets, has a good-natured and perky wheeze, which can hardly be called singing. But the English and Continental blackbird pours out of his throat the most heavenly melody. One Winter day in Munich, in the midst of a snowstorm, I saw a blackbird perched on a tree directly in front of the University building. ”

“ The blackbird is of a shy and restless disposition, courting concealment, and rarely seen in flocks, or otherwise than singly or in pairs, and taking flight when startled with a sharp shrill cry. It builds its nest in March, or early in April, in thick bushes or in ivy-clad trees, and usually rears at least two broods each season. ”

“ Aloft, in the broad-leaved sycamore-tree, the blackbird was singing as if he were out of his senses for joy; his song was as loud as any nightingale, and his heart was glad, because his young brood was hatched, and he knew that they now sat with their little yellow beaks poking out of the nest, and thinking what a famous bird their father was. All the robins and tomtits and linnets and redstarts that sat in the trees of the garden den shouted vivas and bravuras, and encored him delightfully. ”

“ The winter of 1878 was certainly an unusually dreary one, and so thought a remarkably fine young Blackbird, as he perched one morning on the bare bough of a spreading lime-tree, whose last brown leaf had fallen to the ground some weeks before. ”

“ There is nothing about our grackle that is in any way like the English blackbird.
A name is frequently the symbol of some striking characteristic as of color, or peculiarity of voice. Bluebird, redbird, yellow warbler, goldfinch and many others are full of color suggestion, while catbird, chat, phœbe, bobolink, towhee, song sparrow, and the like, appeal to the auditory sense. The bluebird, the nearest we have in this country to the English robin-redbreast and quite as lovable a bird in its way, has found a place in literature as it has in the hearts of all true lovers of the countryside. ”

“ After a passing fall of rain, one of our sudden mid-day thunder showers for instance, when the full burst of sunshine, bright and fierce, breaks again on the freshened landscape;—the first bird seen creeping out from the thicket to dry his wings, and regain the fields, is the Savanna Blackbird. The Mocking-bird, ready as he is with his song, to gladden the landscape once more, is seldom before the shrill Blackbird, in breaking the hush that succeeds the overpast shower. ”

“ All day long he is shuffling about on the ground picking up minute atoms, whether seeds or insects, who knows? Every day, nearly all the year round, he repairs at intervals to the nearest hedge, where he sings a song, soft and gentle like himself; and every evening, when the Blackbird rings his curfew bell, he fails not to respond with his drowsy cheep, cheep, as he repairs to the bush he has selected for his night's rest. Very early in spring, before his brother warblers have arrived from the south, he has chosen his mate, built his snug nest, and too probably commenced a second ”

“ Savages only are exempt from the sparrow: only barren land from the blackbird. As soon as a garden is laid out, a hedge set, an orchard planted, the blackbird comes. Except within easy flight of land that man has tended, it is not found. Its nest, again, has a curious point in its favour, for it is so well built—being a cup of mud strongly felted with moss and grass both inside and out—and, as a rule, in such a sheltered spot that it lasts through the winter, and mice are often glad, when their tenements underground become uncomfortable, to occupy them. ”

“ The woods were almost songless, and each day added to the increasing multitude of dead leaves that drove before the wind; each day, too, the bare boughs, once so well covered, flung a few more of their last leaves to the ground. About this time, too, the Blackbird did not feel quite well––he was listless, his wings would droop in spite of himself. His feathers were not so black and glossy as they had been,––the fact was, the moulting season had begun, and it was some time before he began to feel really bright and well again. ”

“ Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds [Pg_47] which are so frequently called precisely what they are not. In spite of the compliment implied in associating the name of one of our finest songsters with it, the rusty blackbird has a clucking call as unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very rarely in the spring does it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of the redwing's. ”

“ On the other extreme, streaked female and young birds from Lower California, Arizona, and Western Mexico are much lighter than in eastern birds, the chin, throat, jugulum, and superciliary stripe tinged with a peculiar peach-blossom pink; not buff, sometimes tinged with orange.
Habits. The much abused and persecuted Redwinged Blackbird is found throughout North America as far north as the 57th parallel, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and it breeds more or less abundantly wherever found, from Florida and Texas to the plains of the Saskatchewan. ”