Red-winged Blackbird

A familiar wetland bird. Adult males are black with bright red shoulder patches edged in yellow. In a perched male, you often see a red-orange epaulet on the wing, especially when he spreads his wings to sing. Females are heavily streaked brown, looking somewhat like a large sparrow, with a whitish eyebrow and often a warm orange wash on the throat. Males are polygynous and highly territorial in breeding season, singing from cattails or fences around marshes. Red-winged Blackbirds are commonly seen in huge flocks outside the breeding season, mixing with other blackbirds and starlings in fields. They are one of North America's most abundant native birds.

“konk-la-ree”

Marshes, wetlands, and also dry fields and meadows (particularly in non-breeding season). Breeds in fresh and brackish marshes, reedy ditches, wet meadows, and pond edges—anywhere with dense, tall vegetation (cattails, reeds, sedges) to conceal nests. Also uses upland fields, pastures, and rice fields. In migration and winter, often forages in agricultural fields, feedlots, prairies, and along roadsides, then roosts in wetlands or trees by the thousands.

One of the earliest spring migrants—males often arrive on breeding marshes as early as February in temperate areas, with females following later. Breeding occurs from early spring through summer; males aggressively defend territories, displaying their red shoulders and singing frequently. By late summer, they begin to flock up. In fall, massive roosts form (mixed with other blackbirds and grackles) which can number in the millions. They spend fall and winter in these nomadic flocks, feeding in fields by day and roosting in marshes or woodlands at night. Come late winter, males begin peeling off to head north, heralding the start of spring migration in February/March.