Perched Red-winged Blackbird

Last May the eligible Red-winged Blackbird bachelors were making their presence known. They display their flashy red wings and sing for 2 related reasons:

  • To let other males know that this is their territory, and that the other males should stay away if they know what's good for them. My guess is that actual fighting is rare, but threats and intimidation are common in the leadup to breeding season.
  • To let females know that there's a handsome male holding/defending a territory that would be great for raising a clutch of nestlings.
Males with good territories will usually breed with more than 1 female that's decided to nest within his territory. Unfortunately for the males, a non-trivial number of a female's eggs were fertilized by a different male. Not unlike a soap opera, there's a lot of cheating going on in the Red-winged Blackbird world. 

More about these birds can be found in this video.

May 25, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 292818050, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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