Red-winged blackbird
You can click the link above and read about this bird and also there is a link to hear his song.
If you click this photo to make it larger, you will notice his little beak is open. He was singing up a storm for us.
Here he is landing in the rushes alongside the pond area at the nursery.
We were out at the nursery on Saturday and the meadow and pond area were full of these beautiful blackbirds. I was able to capture this particular bird by creeping as close as I could and then taking lots of photos. 🙂
The Handbook of Nature Study has a whole section on red-winged blackbirds so I was able to learn a lot about them from Anna Comstock’s easy to read narrative. The section starts on page 117.
“The red-winged blackbird lives in the marshes where it builds its nest. However, it comes over to our plowed lands and pastures and helps the farmer by destroying many insects which injure the meadows, crops, and trees.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 119
Very neat photos, Barb!
We are studying the Red-Winged Blackbird this week after seeing them on our nature walk last week. Our very first Nature Journal entry is about them as well. 🙂
Sherry
The Red-Winged Blackbirds are here by the jillions right now, we were out by one of our mangrove islands at sunset the other day and you could hardly hear yourself think!