Western Pennsylvania. October 20, 2007.

As a summer resident the Red-winged Blackbird is a familiar sight in low meadows and along roadsides. At a little distance he appears only to be a plain, black bird, but as he extends his wings his brilliant epaulets come into prominence. The plumage of the female, though inconspicuous, is singularly beautiful when seen at close range. It looks like a fabric of which the warp is black and the woof a twisted thread of brown and yellow. The Red-wings are essentially early birds, often returning in spring when their marshy haunts are still frozen over. Their vocalization is suggestive of cool, moist ground and hidden springs; it continues until late July, and is briefly renewed in October. The deep nest is half hung, half twined between the stems of marsh-growing plants, and often holds two broods of a season; the boggy location chosen serves to protect it quite thoroughly from human invaders.

The Blackbird’s clear notes are associated with those of the Meadowlark, as they are both early singers and are found in similar places. They are useful birds to the agriculturalist, as they are great destroyers of cutworms. They are sometimes polygamous, though as frequently found in pairs; being very gregarious birds, many nests are found in the same locality.

Excerpted from Birdcraft: A Field Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds, by Mabel Osgood Wright. Published by the Macmillan Company, New York, 1900.