BLACKBIRDS 
371 
Distribution. Western North America. In Canada, the Prairie Provinces, north to 
southern Mackenzie, and southern British Columbia. Scarce or absent west of the Coast 
Range. 
Nesting. Nest of grasses, etc., tied to reeds or tules over water. 
The Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds have much in com- 
mon; they inhabit reedy or tule marshes and sloughs, and both are clownish. 
The nesting marsh of a colony of blackbirds is a noisy and busy place. 
There is continual going and coming, visiting, forays, and alarums; much 
fluttering of black wings, with incidental display of brilliant colour as 
yellow heads or red epaulettes flash in the sun; and a constant conversa- 
tional croaking and gurgling of harsh, rough voices, with intermittent out- 
break of strenuous, raucous objection and expostulation. In these, both 
species take equal part. 
The song of the Yellow-headed— if song it can be called, as it lacks 
every musical quality — is like that of no other Canadian bird. Climbing 
stiff-leggedly up a reed or tule stalk the male, with wings partly raised, 
lowers his head as if about to be violently ill, and disgorges a series of rough, 
angular consonants, jerkily and irregularly, with many contortions and 
writhings, as if their sharp corners caught in the throat and they were born 
with pain and travail. They finally culminate and bring satisfied relief in a 
long-drawn, descending buzz, like the slipping of an escapement in a clock 
spring and the consequent rapid unwinding and futile running down of the 
machinery. The general effect of the performance may be somewhat sug- 
gested by the syllables “ Klick-kluck-klee — klo-Jdu-klel — kriz-kri-zzzzzzz- 
zeeeeee 
The Yellow-headed seem to require rather larger marsh areas than 
do the Red-winged, and, except locally, are not as numerous as that species. 
In the late summer and autumn, they join together in large flocks, some- 
times mixed with other species of blackbirds, and lead lives of roving irre- 
sponsibility and good feeding. The days are spent on the bountiful stubble 
fields, and the nights in the marshes. A blackbird roost just before sunset 
is an interesting place indeed. The birds come in from every direction, 
talking and croaking loudly, in vast black clouds, looking, on the horizon, 
like wisps of smoke blowing before the wind. They pitch into a bed of 
reeds already occupied by earlier arrivals, until each stalk seems strung 
with big, black beads. At the onslaught of the incoming contingent, 
birds are dislodged right and left, there is a babel of protesting voices and 
a fluttering of many wings that whirr loudly in the still air as the surface 
of the green marsh boils with black forms seeking new resting places. The 
confusion gradually subsides until the next arriving flock starts the hubbub 
over again. Thus it goes as the sun sinks, until all are in, and then the even- 
ing wind chases waves over the soft green surface of the reed beds, without 
revealing a hint of the hordes of black bodies beneath that are resting 
through the stillness of the night. 
Economic Status . Though a bird of the marshes, the Yellow-headed 
Blackbird does not confine its attention to the immediate neighbourhood, 
but forages about corrals, barnyards, freshly ploughed ground, and similar 
places. It is a ground feeder, and insects harmful to vegetation constitute 
30 per cent of its food. Grain, mostly oats, constitutes a fairly large pro- 
portion of its food, but as much of this grain is waste, little complaint 
can be lodged against this species. 
