400 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YO SEMITE 



Mr. Donald D. McLean has told us that Yellow-headed Blackbirds are 

 sometimes seen during the spring months at his home, Dudley, 6 miles 

 east of Coulterville. 



Red- WINGED Blackbirds. Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus)-^ 



Field characters. — Somewhat smaller than Eobiu. Males wholly black, except for red 

 'epaulet' or shoulder patch on each wing at bend. Females brownish black, with under 

 surface more or less streaked with pinkish buflf, feathers of back edged with buff, and a 

 light stripe over eye. Voice: Song of males a throaty tong-lcw'-lee ; both sexes, adult 

 or young, when excited utter a sharp chach; males whistle and scold when nesting pre- 

 cincts are invaded. 



Occurrence. — Common locally below Canadian Zone.23 Eestricted to fresh-water 

 marshes with abundant growths of tules (or willows), or to boggy meadows with thick 

 stands of tall grass. More or less gregarious at all seasons. 



The Red-winged Blackbird is closely associated with the fresh-water 

 marshes which border the lower reaches of the Tuolumne and Merced 

 rivers and with the many small seepage depressions and wet meadows 

 which are found along smaller streams on both sides of the Sierra Nevada. 

 In the dense stands of tules, grasses, and willows which characterize these 

 places the Red-wing finds suitable shelter and in the vicinity forage 

 adequate for its existence through a part or all of the year. In the San 

 Joaquin Valley (Lower Sonoran Zone) the Red-wing is resident through- 

 out the year, but in the western foothills (Upper Sonoran and Transition 

 zones) and in Mono Valley (Transition Zone) east of the mountains, it 

 is but a summer visitant, being forced out by the adverse conditions obtain- 

 ing through the winter months. At all seasons of the year the Red-wing 

 exhibits gregarious tendencies, but it does so most markedly during winter 

 when compact flocks numbering hundreds and often thousands of indi- 

 viduals roam about on the then wet plains of the San Joaquin Valley. 

 Even during the nesting season, when the members of most sociable species 

 separate, this colonial propensity of the bird is manifested by the pro- 

 pinquity of the nests of different pairs. 



23 Three subspecies of Eed-winged Blackbirds have been found in the Yosemite section, 

 namely: (1) Bi-colored Eed-winged Blackbird (Agclaiits phoeniceus califnrnieus Nel- 

 son), the race of central California, characterized by absence of any buff border below 

 the red of wing in males, is resident at Snelling and near Lagrange (Lower Sonoran 

 Zone) and a summer visitant on the meadows of Bean and Smith creeks (Transition 

 Zone), east of Coulterville; (2) Nevada Eed-winged Blackbird (Af/elaiits phoeniceus 

 nevaden.His Grinnell), of the Great Basin, distinguished by a smaller bill, the presence 

 of a broad buffy edging on red of wing of males and by sharjx-r and more extensive 

 streaking on under surface of females, is a summer visitant to Mono Valley and the 

 vicinity of Walker Lake; {'^) Kern Eed-winged I^l.nckhikd (Aiichiius pJiocnicciis 

 aciculatvs Mailliard), previously known only from Kern Valley east of Bakersfield, with 

 buff wing bar in mulv, and shiirp streaking in female (as in jk'IVu/c/i.vi'.v), but notable 

 for its long slender bill, was found as a summer visitant to Yosemite Valley in May, 

 1919, and June, 1920. 



