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[Editor’s note: This is the ■ first half of a two-part story on the native red-winged blackbird. Part two will run next week.]
The male red-winged blackbird flipping his tail and picking up seed on the ground under my bird feeder is a somber, jet black bird with a narrow streak of pale yellow on its wing. Suddenly, he flies and erupts into a flash of scarlet, yellow and black. It is an astonishing change — a splendid sight.
The brilliant red and yellow shoulder patches, hidden when the bird is a rest, are called epaulets for the same adornment on the shoulders of some military uniforms. I know of no other bird that displays such a startling color change when it goes from perching to flying.
Just over seven inches long, the redwing, as it is often called, is found throughout the United States and is considered by some ornithologists to be the most numerous bird in America.
Like all blackbirds — grackles and cowbirds included — the redwing has a strong flocking instinct in the non-breeding season. ; Winter concentrations of redwings can number in the thousands. One flock in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia was estimated to contain more than a million birds.
Female and first-year • male redwings look like I heavily streaked, brownish sparrows — sparrows with an unsparrow-like bill, however. The redwing’s bill is long and pointed, perfect for . picking up grain and captur• ing insects.
The redwing is one of the
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