RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 



191 



Though about the size of the Flicker, it can readily be 

 distinguished by its flight ; after a few strokes it sails a 

 short distance, then repeats tlie few strokes, then sets its 

 wings and sails again. When it flies up from the ground, 

 the white outer tail-feathers are a conspicuous mark ; as 

 the bird walks on the ground, its short tail is often ner- 

 vously opened, so that the white feathers show. 



Red-wixged Blackbird. Agelaius 2~>hmniceus 



$ 9.51. 9 8.00 



Ad. $. — Entire plumage black, showing in flight a bright 

 scarlet patch edged with buff and white, at the bend of the wing ^ 

 often only the white edging shows when the wing is closed. Ad. 

 9 and hn. — Brown, everywhere streaked; throat often bufPy. 



Nest, of grasses and weed-stalks, in a low bush or on a tussock 

 of sedge. Eggs, pale blue, scrawled and spotted with dark purple 

 or black. 



The Red-winged Blackbird is a common summer resident 

 of the Hudson Valley and of southern and central New 

 York ; in northern New 

 England, especially on 

 the upland, it is much 

 less commqn. Occasion- 

 ally a few Red-wings 

 winter in the marshes 

 near Boston, and may 

 do so in favorable local- 

 ities in southern New 

 England. The male ar- 

 rives early in March, 

 but it is often three 

 weeks before the female joins him. When the young are 

 full grown, the breeding birds depart and are rarely seen 

 after August. Flocks of northern migrants often arrive in 

 September and linger till October, and on mild days sing 

 in chorus, though without the vigor of spring. 



Fig. 58. Red-winged Blackbird, Female 



