Description
The common name for the Red-winged Blackbird is taken from the mainly black adult male's distinctive red shoulder patches, or "epaulets", which are visible when the bird is flying or displaying. At rest, the male also shows a pale yellow wingbar. The female is blackish-brown and paler below. The female is smaller than the male, at 17–18 cm (6.7–7.1 in) in length and weighing 41.5 g (1.46 oz) weight, against his length of 22–24 cm (8.7–9.4 in) and weight of 64 g (2.3 oz). The smallest females may weigh as little as 29 g (1.0 oz) whereas the largest males can weigh up to 82 g (2.9 oz). Each wing can range from 8.1–14.4 cm (3.2–5.7 in), the tail measures 6.1–10.9 cm (2.4–4.3 in), the culmen measures 1.3–3.2 cm (0.51–1.3 in) and the tarsus measures 2.1 cm (0.83 in).
Young birds resemble the female, but are paler below and have buff feather fringes. Both sexes have a sharply pointed bill. The tail is of medium length and is rounded. The eyes, bill, and feet are all black.
The male is unmistakable except in the far west of the US, where the Tricolored Blackbird occurs. Males of that species have a darker red epaulet edged with white, not yellow. Females of Tricolored, Bicolored, Red-shouldered and Red-winged Blackbirds can be difficult to identify in areas where more than one form occurs. In flight, when the field marks are not easily seen, Red-winged can be distinguished from less closely related icterids such as Common Grackle and Brown-headed Cowbird by its different silhouette and undulating flight.
The call of the Red-winged Blackbird is a throaty check and a high slurred whistle, terrr-eeee. The male's song is a scratchy oak-a-lee, accompanied by a display of his red shoulder patches. The female also sings, typically a scolding chatter chit chit chit chit chit chit cheer teer teer teerr.
Read more about this topic: Red-winged Blackbird
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month’s labor in the farmer’s almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)