Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Habitat:
Range is Canada to the West Indies, Costa Rica. Present throughout the year in many areas. In the north, migrants appear early in spring, migrating in flocks.
Red-winged Blackbirds are notably bold, and serveral will often attack larger birds such as a hawk or crow that flies over their nesting area.
The red shoulder patches of the male, hidden under body feathers much of the time, are brilliantly displayed when he is singing. Outside of the nest season, Red-wings sometimes roost in large concentrations.
This species breeds in marshes, brushy swamps, hayfields. Forages also in cultivated land and along the edge of water.

Diet:
Mostly insects and seeds. Feeds on many insects, especially in the summer, including beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, spiders, millipedes and snails. Majority of adult diet (roughly three-fourths) is seeds, including those of grasses, weeds and waste grain. Also eats some berries and small fruits.

Nesting:
Placed in marshy growth such as cattails or bulrushes, in bushes or saplings close to water or in dense grass in fields. Nest, built by female, is bulky open cup, lashed to standing vegetation, made of grass, reeds, leaves, rootlets, lined with fine grass.

Eggs:
3-4, rarely 2-6. Pale blue-green, with markings of black, grown, purple, concentrated at larger end. Incubation is by female only, 10-12 days.

Young:
Both parents feed nestlings, but female does more. Young leave the nest about 11-14 days after hatching.
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