Native Animal Profile: Red-winged Blackbird
Red-wing Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). Maryland DNR staff photo.
Red-winged blackbirds are not rare, but they certainly are beautiful! Chances are you have spotted them many times or heard their call, “Conk-la-REE!” Their scientific name is Agelaius phoeniceus, which comes from a Greek origin. “Agelaios” means “flocking” in Greek, indicating these birds flock together in large groups, while “phoeniceus” comes from the Greek word “phoinikeos,” due to the fact that ancient Phoenicians brought to Greece crimson dyes that they made using shellfish. The latter part of their scientific name describes their colorful wing patches. The first known painting of a red-winged blackbird was created by English naturalist Mark Catesby somewhere between 1727-1731. Carolus Linnaeus, the famous Swedish scientist who formalized binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms, gave the red-winged blackbird its scientific name in 1766, based on Catesby’s painting.
Mark Catesby, The red Wing’d Starling. 1727-1731
In the 1914 book Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, author Katharine Berry Judson writes of a Native American Chitimacha folktale that describes how the Red-Winged Blackbird got its wing coloration. The tale tells of a man setting a marsh on fire while the bird warns everyone, the man throws a shell at the bird hitting it and causing it to bleed which in turn causes the red coloration on the wings. At the end the red-winged blackbird saved the marsh.
They are one of our most abundant and widespread species throughout Maryland and most of the continent, and can be found in all of the lower 48 states, parts of Alaska, and parts of Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. In late spring and summer you are most likely to find them perched on cattails, reeds, and other tall plants in wetlands where they breed. The remainder of the year they gather in flocks and can be found foraging in agricultural fields and pastures. They sometimes travel up to 50 miles between feeding and roosting sites.
Red-winged blackbirds are omnivorous; they vary their diet when opportunities arise. However, their diet consists mainly of seeds and grains, like corn and rice, as well as small berries.They will also eat a variety of insects and arachnids during the breeding season to increase their caloric intake and meet their dietary needs, allowing them to be in peak reproductive form. If needed they can also eat various other small invertebrates and carrion as well. Red-winged Blackbirds will visit backyard bird feeders, especially when food is limited in the winter months. Their predators include owls, raptors, snakes, and some mammals, such as raccoons.
Male coloration is shiny black with red, or more often red and yellow, patches on the upper parts of their wings. These are called epaulettes, which is the same word used to describe the shoulder decorations on military and royal uniforms. Resembling large sparrows, female Red-winged Blackbirds are brown and heavily streaked, with a yellowish area around their beak. The juveniles look more like the females in coloration, as seen in the photo above. This species is polygynous, and males mate with up to 15 females. The better the territory that the male controls, the more females that come to his harem.
Males are very territorial and spend a large portion of their time defending their turf, using a combination of showy behavior and swooping. Displaying their epaulettes has the dual purpose of attracting females and showing off for other males. If another male enters their territory, they may swoop towards them to deliver a smack. However, in defending their territory, they may also try to attack other animals wearing red!
Map of red-winged blackbird range from Cornell Lab’s All About Bird website: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/maps-range
