THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 



WHEN tlie hylas begin to pipe in the spring, they 

 are joined by the musical Redwings. The 

 voices of these birds have been likened to flutes, also to 

 violincellos in an orchestra. Their song is pleasant to 

 hear, but seems to require considerable eff^ort on the part 

 of the performers — they lift their shoulders and spread 

 their tails into broad fans when singing. 



Redwings are noisy chatterers; they are intensely social 

 in their nature. It is thought that some males have sev- 

 eral wives at a time — one marvels at their courage! Dur- 

 ing the winter the females flock by themselves, and in the 

 spring migrate about two weeks after their venturesome, 

 prospective husbands have come northward. When they 

 arrive, there is great "Confusion of Tongues" — the marsh 

 is transformed into a Babel. Then sites for homes are 

 selected, and house-building begins in earnest. Black- 

 birds make devoted parents. 



They are much more popular than their cousins, the 

 grackles, though in some localities where they are very 

 abundant, as in the Upper Mississippi Valley, they are 

 in disfavor because of the grain they devour. They eat 

 oats, corn, and wheat, but only one-third as much as do 

 the grackles; they eat the seeds of smartweed and barn- 

 yard grass in preference. Grasshoppers they consider 

 great delicacies, also many other harmful insects.^ Pro- 

 fessor Beal states that nearly seven-eighths of their food 

 consists of weed seed and insects injurious to agriculture. 

 He pleads for their protection as does Mr. Forbush, who 

 says: "Should there be an outbreak of cankerworms in 

 an orchard, the blackbirds will fly at least half a mile to 



1 Farmers' Bulletin 630, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Biological 

 Survey. 



[119] 



