For the birds: Red-winged blackbirds

Female Red-winged blackbird

By Christine Southwick

The Girls are here. The female Red-Winged Blackbirds are back. They arrived at Green Lake last week, looking for the handsome males who arrived a couple of weeks before to stake out the best territory in a small patch of cattails, or thickets in either freshwater or saltwater marshes and wetlands, all the way down to wet roadside ditches for the less dominate males. We are far enough north that most of our Red-winged Blackbirds come from California.

The guys sit high up in the open, loudly singing their Konk-a-reee” and saying, “Look at me, girls!”

Male Red-winged Blackbird

Male Red-winged Blackbirds are broad-shouldered glossy black, with bright red shoulder patches, with a smaller yellow patch along the lower edge of the red.

The females are smaller, and look like a large striped sparrow with a white eyeline. When first seen, few people recognize them as a blackbird. The difference in plumage between male and female is called dimorphism.

These females are looking for the brightest, glossiest, loudest and best singer. So strong is this drive, that the top males will have up to fifteen mates, although two is the more common number. Consequently, the males are always trying to outdo each other, with lots of fluttering of their red shoulder patches for both domination and flashing displays.

The females stay out of sight

The females stay mostly out of sight, skulking down in the heavy vegetation near the water looking for food. There in the dense vegetation they lash together a nest for their three to four young.

Red-winged Blackbirds mainly feed on insects and seeds, including waste grains. In the winter they form large flocks, which some farmers find objectionable.

So, take a trip to one of our wetlands with cattails in Seattle, or Edmonds and north, and listen to the uplifting “Konk-a-ree”. I’ll bet you smile when you hear that song.

Challenge yourself, and see if you can find the hidden females; then see if you can sight any of their nests. It’s a good practice for learning how to focus binoculars too, since the females don’t move too fast, and the nests not at all.

Happy song, bright flashes of red, binocular practice, and a sighting challenge. What’s not to like?

Christine Southwick is on the Board of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and is their Winter Urban Color-banding Project Manager. She is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat Steward, having completed their forty hour class. We're happy that she's sharing her expertise with us about the birds in our backyards.