2023-08-23
A closer look at the red-winged blackbird
One of my favourite birds is the red-winged blackbird and when they leave in migration, I’m always saddened.
They nest in the Yukon and across Canada. They also nest in California, Costa Rica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. In the winter they go to the northern part of their nesting range and over much of the United States.
The red-winged blackbird is 17.5 to 23.75 cm long with a wingspread of 30 to 36.25 cm. The males, after the second year, are glossy black except for a red shoulder patch or epaulet with a lower border of yellow.
The female is brown above and heavily streaked below. There is a light streak over the eye. When they are only a year old the males are similar to the females, but less streaked. The bill of both the male and female is sharply pointed.
The red-winged blackbirds diet is 73 per cent vegetable matter, 27 per cent animal. They eat mayflies, caddis flies, moths, beetles, caterpillars of gypsy moths, forest tent caterpillars, geometrid moth caterpillars, cankerworms, grubs in plowed fields, grasshoppers, spiders, myriapods, mollusks, snails, and also blueberries and blackberries and other fruit.
They will also eat bread and birdseed mixtures in the backyard. Weed seeds and waste grain comprise a large part of the diet.
I saw my first common nighthawk for the year at Blockhouse Hill in Lunenburg on Aug. 10. Gary Selig saw a number of them in Bridgewater and Steven Hiltz reported seeing eight at Advocate Harbour and 15 over the Canadian Tire Store in Bridgewater on Aug. 13. That same day, David Walmark saw 25 semi-palmated plovers and 25 least sandpipers on Hirtle’s Beach in Kingsburg.
Lise Bell, on Aug. 16, observed ruddy turnstones, black-bellied plovers, three red knots, semi-palmated plovers, a few short-billed dowitchers and semi-palmated sandpipers on Crescent Beach. Later in the day she saw a turkey vulture approaching roadkill at Stonehurst. Kevin Lantz located an adult yellow-crowned night heron at Ritcey’s Cove in Riverport. I had 80 common grackles show up Aug. 16.
Ken McKenna found a snowy egret at River Road in Antigonish on Aug. 10. On that day a prairie warbler in The Willows was a great find for Ronnie d’Entremont. Heather Stewart saw a killdeer at Clark’s Harbour on Aug. 12. Paul Gould observed a northern rough-winged swallow at Chebogue Point on Aug. 13.
On Aug. 14 Ray W. found a Prothonotary warbler at Hartlen Point. Zach Wile saw a black-billed cuckoo at Amherst Point. At Grand Desert, Natalie Barkhouse-Bishop reported two Baird’s sandpipers. Logan Moore on that day was lucky to find eastern bluebirds at the Old Orchard Lane in Clyde River.
Aug. 15 produced a prairie warbler for Jim Edsall at Hartlen Point and an American golden plover for Natalie Barkhouse-Bishop at Chezzetcook. Jake Walker saw three white egrets in flight over the Rotary Park in Wolfville. They were likely snowy egrets. Gary Selig was amazed to see a kettle of 32 turkey vultures at Paradise.
You may reach me at (902) 693-2174 or email jrhbirder@hotmail.com.
