16 
Conservation Bulletin 18 
account of its partiality for marshes. It builds its nest over or near standing 
water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing to this peculiarity the bird may 
be absent from large tracts of country which afford no swamps or marshes 
suitable for nesting. It usually breeds in large colonies, though single families, 
consisting of a male and several females, may sometimes be found in a small 
slough, where each female builds her nest and rears her own little brood, While 
her liege lord displays his brilliant colors and struts in the sunshine. In the 
upper Mississippi Valley the species finds most favorable conditions, for the 
countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the numerous shallow lakes afford 
nesting sites for thousands of red-wings; and here are bred the immense flocks 
which sometimes do so much damage to the grain fields of the West. After the 
breeding season the birds congregate preparatory to migration, and remain 
thus associated throughout the winter. 
Three species and several subspecies of red-wings are recognized, 43 but practi¬ 
cally no difference exists in the habits of these forms either in nesting or 
feeding, except such as may result from local conditions. Most of the forms are 
found on the Pacific side of the continent, and may be considered as included in 
the following statements as to food and economic status. 
Many complaints have been made against the red-wing, and several States 
have at times placed a bounty upon its head. It is said to cause great damage 
to grain in the West, especially in the upper Mississippi Valley, but few com¬ 
plaints come from the northeast¬ 
ern section, where the bird is much 
less abundant than in the West 
and South. 
Examination of 1,083 stomachs 
showed that vegetable matter 
forms 74 per cent of the food, 
while animal matter, mainly in¬ 
sects, forms but 26 per cent. A 
little more than 10 per cent con¬ 
sists of beetles, mostly harmful 
species. Weevils, or snout beetles, 
amount to 4 per cent of the year’s 
food, but in June reach 25 per cent. 
As weevils are among the most 
harmful insects known, their de¬ 
struction should condone some, at 
least, of the sins of which the 
bird is accused. Grasshoppers 
constitute nearly 5 per cent of the 
food, while the rest of the animal 
matter is made up of various 
insects, a few snails, and crus¬ 
taceans. The few dragon flies found were probably picked up dead, for they 
are too active to be taken alive, unless by a bird of the flycatcher family. So 
far as the insect food as a whole is concerned, the red-wing may be considered 
entirely beneficial. 
The interest in the vegetable food of this bird centers around grain. Only 
three kinds, corn, wheat, and oats, were found in the stomachs in appreciable 
quantities. They aggregate but little more than 13 per cent of the whole food, 
oats forming nearly half of this amount. Field investigation has shown, how¬ 
ever, that, when local conditions are favorable, large flocks of red-wings may 
do considerable damage. Conspicuous among such cases are the losses suffered 
by farmers to sweet corn in some of the northeastern States and to milo in the 
South and West.- In the rather limited grain-raising area of the Imperial 
Valley of California the annual damage to milo alone by enormous flocks of 
red-wings and yellow-headed blackbirds has been estimated to be fully $50,000. 
The most important item of the bird’s food, however, is weed seed, which forms 
practically all of its food in winter and about 57 per cent of the fare of the 
whole year. The principal weed seeds eaten are those of ragweed, barnyard 
grass, and smartweed. That these seeds are preferred is shown by the fact 
that the birds begin to eat them in August, when grain is still readily obtainable, 
and continue feeding on them even after insects become plentiful in April. 
The red-wing eats very little fruit and does practically no harm to garden or 
Fig. 14.—Red-winged blackbird. Length, about 
9J inches. 
48 Agelaius pheeniceus (8 forms), Agelaius gubernator, and Agelaius tricolor. 
