THE IOWA OKNlTHOI,OGIST. 



39 



498. Agelaius phoeniceus. (Linn.) 



RED- WINGED BLACKBIRD. 



"Arrived at Iowa City March 

 10, 1894. Common nesting- in 

 marshy places. Nests in colonies. 

 Near Burlington they nest in 

 shrubs, 8 or 10 feet above the 

 g-round, but near Iowa City, all 

 the nests I found were near the 

 g-round, 1 to 3 feet above. "(Paul 

 Bartsch. ) ' 'Plentiful in Fayette 

 Co. I have g-enerally found the 

 nest attached to three or four 

 stalks of cat-tail, about 2 feet 

 from the ground; almost invaria- 

 bly over water."(P. C. Woods.) 

 "Summer resident, they are here 

 from March to November. Nests 

 in sloug-hs, where their ring-ing- 

 'Kong--quer-ree' may be heard at 

 ail times of the day, during- the 

 nesting- season. Two or three 

 broods are raised in a season." 

 (R. M, Anderson.) "Quite com- 

 mon, they nest in small bushes or 

 in the big' coarse g-rass, g-rowing- 

 in swamps and ponds. Male and 

 female not the same color. "(Wm. 

 Savag-e.) "Ten years ag-o, the 

 nests were found commonly in 

 the tall g-rass along- the sloug-hs, 

 and were destroyed in great num- 

 bers by the summer floods, but 

 now the sl6ughs are all closely 

 cropped pasture lands and the 

 Red-wings have been forced to 

 resort to willow trees along the 

 larger streams for their nesting 

 sites. In the early years of 

 Lyon Co. when this species was 



more abundant than now, they 

 were wont to congregate in im- 

 mense flocks and often did serious 

 damage to corn fields in the fall." 

 (C. R. Ball.) "Very common 

 from early March until the 

 middle of November. Former- 

 ly nested exclusively in swampy 

 'cat-tail' grown sloughs, but now 

 resort to coarse grass and even to 

 small bushes." (Lynds Jones.) 

 "Abundant breeder in every 

 marsh. May 12, '94 found several 

 nests with one egg. 

 May 29, Nests from just begun to 

 containing young birds. 2-3 and 

 1-4 sets taken, latter with incuba- 

 tion advanced. 



June 9, Took sets 7-3 and 2-4 all 

 fresh except 1-3 and 1-4. 

 June 10, Noted numbers of full 

 fledged young in a dried up 

 marsh. 



June 16, Found 3 nests with 

 young and 4-3 sets incubation 

 begun. 



The nest is generally, when in 

 a large marsh, near the edge in 

 the low thin rushes. Composed 

 of rushes but lined with fine 

 grass. One specimen was taken 

 Mar. 20, '91 which had each feath- 

 er tipped with whitish. On the 

 back the tips were quite buffy. 

 Shoulder patches bright orange, 

 trimmed with buff. This was in 

 Winnebago Co." (J. Eugene 

 Law. ) 



"Abundant summer resident in 

 Buena Vista Co. They nest in 

 large numbers in the coarse grass 

 bordering ponds. Where small 



