THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 



When you put the scarlet shoulders on your paper Red-winged 

 Blackbird you will know exactly how the live bird looks, but you may have 

 to go to some marshy place to see him, for he makes his home where the 

 ground is wet, most often on the meadows. 



If you first see the Red-winged Blackbird on a tree you will very likely 

 think him all black, but when he spreads his wings to fly you will see his 

 bright red shoulders and know him immediately. 



Put on your overshoes and look for a queer, bulky, pocket-shaped 

 nest, woven of the blades of rushes and grass, and hung between reeds or 

 stems of bushes. That will be the Red-winged Blackbird's nest. It is 

 lined with fine grass, and in it will be three— perhaps five— bluish-white 

 eggs with marks like a lead-pencil scrawl around the large end. 



The Red-winged Blackbird is a cousin to the Finch family and of the 

 Crow family. 



