Red - Winged Blackbird
Description: Male: Black bird with red and yellow on its wings. Female: is heavily streaked and light brown overall dark above brow. Juvenile: mostly brown with some streaking, 1st year male is messy looking, streaked with the adult's plumage but faded.
Nest: Cup woven of grass, reeds, plant fibers, lined with rootlets, fine grasses, pine needles and fibers from bark. Placed in standing vegetation, grasses, tussocks near or above water, sometimes in a shrub or woven into cattails or reeds. Vegetation surrounding nest is often woven into nest. One nest I found was 20 feet from water and 4 feet high in a meadowsweet shrub.
Eggs: Light blue with dark scrawls, dots and speckles. Commonly 3 - 4
Diet: Insects and seeds. Sometimes flycatches insects and frequently visits feeders.
Habitat: Marshes, swamps, wet meadows, streams and ponds. Forms large flocks with other blackbirds during migration. In spring, males migrate earlier and in fall both sexes migrate at the same time.
Nest: Cup woven of grass, reeds, plant fibers, lined with rootlets, fine grasses, pine needles and fibers from bark. Placed in standing vegetation, grasses, tussocks near or above water, sometimes in a shrub or woven into cattails or reeds. Vegetation surrounding nest is often woven into nest. One nest I found was 20 feet from water and 4 feet high in a meadowsweet shrub.
Eggs: Light blue with dark scrawls, dots and speckles. Commonly 3 - 4
Diet: Insects and seeds. Sometimes flycatches insects and frequently visits feeders.
Habitat: Marshes, swamps, wet meadows, streams and ponds. Forms large flocks with other blackbirds during migration. In spring, males migrate earlier and in fall both sexes migrate at the same time.