Red-winged Blackbird Spouses?

I met these male and female Red-winged Blackbirds about 2 minutes apart - could they soon be in wedded bliss? Well, it's possible, though as you can see in the background of the 1st picture (the male) there was competition in the meadow. (My recollection is that that wasn't all of his competition either.)

And while Red-winged Blackbird pairs form more of a relationship than yesterday's Zabulon Skippers do, they're not exactly monogamous either. The males attempt to claim and hold a territory they think the females will want to live in. Only the toughest, fittest males can hold onto these prime spots. The males will then mate with as many females as there are who want to raise their children there, so a male will frequently have more than 1 "wife". (The females probably do cheat on the males a bit too, so maybe this evens out?) 

While the female will do most of the work of raising her nestlings, it does sound like the male whose territory she's in will help gather food. Of course, if he's got 4 females in his territory, his time will be split 4 ways.

I have occasionally been confronted by multiple males, presumably when they felt I was too close to a nest, so there probably is communal cooperation between males once breeding season transitions into offspring-raising season.

June 3, 2023 at John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve
Photo 300858691, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

The female in the picture below appears to be acquiring building material for a nest. (There's no reason to run to Lowe's or Home Depot when all the material is just lying around for the taking.)

June 3, 2023 at John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve
Photo 300858916, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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