Red winged blackbird
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Red winged blackbird ♂ ( Agelaius phoeniceus ) |
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| Agelaius phoeniceus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The red winged blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus ) is a bird from the family of blackbirds (Icteridae). It is one of the best-studied songbirds in North America.
The first drawing of a red winged blackbird was made by Mark Catesby . Using his drawing, Carl von Linné described the bird scientifically in 1766.
Appearance
The male has a distinctive black plumage with red wing spots that are framed by small yellow or white stripes. The female and the young birds have a striped, black-brown to brown plumage. The body size is between 18 and 24 centimeters with a wingspan of 30 to 37 centimeters. The beak is pointed and sharp, and on the strong legs there are four toes on the feet; one to the rear and three to the front. The sense of smell is poorly developed, but they can see and hear well. By marking wild red winged blackbirds with a tape, a maximum age of 15 years and 9 months was established.
features
The male's constant trilling call is characteristic. When singing, the male spreads its wings and flaunts the red patches of wings in order to assert its territorial claim against other males or the quieter female. With his calls he also attracts the females during the mating season.
nutrition
The red winged blackbird feeds on spiders , seeds , grains , beetles , butterflies and other insects in summer . Also from fruits like blueberries and blackberries . The insects are caught in the air or on the ground. In winter they mainly feed on seeds and grains. Ripe sunflower seeds are very popular.
Reproduction
There are no permanent partnerships with the red winged blackbird. While the males usually visit the same area for a few years in a row, the females change the breeding area every year. Reproduction takes place between February and August. After the males have arrived in the breeding areas, each one looks for its own breeding area. After about ten days, the females arrive in the breeding areas.
The deep nests consist of grass, swamp grass or reeds and are built by the female alone over water in swamp grass or in bushes. The male participates neither in nest building nor in hatching the eggs. Four to five light blue, brown spotted eggs are laid in the bag-shaped nest. After about 12 days, the blind and naked boys hatch. Both adult birds take part in the rearing of the young. The chicks are initially fed insects. Later, the adult birds serve grains. At 14 days the young are fully fledged.
Young are raised two to three times in a breeding period. A new nest is built for each clutch.
Predators
The red-winged blackbird is hunted by foxes , owls and hawks , among others . The young birds and eggs are captured by stranglers and crows . Water snakes , fish and frogs lurk in the water for falling young birds. In the northwestern distribution area, the red-winged blackbird is often pushed closer to the bank by the larger yellow-headed blackbird ( Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus ) during the breeding season, where it is more endangered by predatory land animals.
Defense
In order to spot the threat from predators at an early stage, the male red winged blackbird often sit on the tip of the reed plants above the nests or near the nests. In the case of the crows, for example, which pose a threat to the eggs and young birds, the male red-winged blackbird flies out immediately when he sees the crow so as not to draw their attention to the nest. Through this behavior, he also makes the adult birds in the neighborhood aware of the impending danger and thus protects their brood. Early sighting is made possible in swamps by the lack of trees that do not block the view.
Occurrence
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The adaptable red winged blackbird is a frequent inhabitant of the riverside wetlands, wet and dry meadows, pastures or fields in North America . As a migratory bird, it spends the winter in Central and South North America. From Baja California to Florida . There are other occurrences in Costa Rica , Cuba and the Bahamas . In spring it moves in large flocks to the breeding areas in the north of North America; including southeast Alaska and Canada .
Red winged blackbird and human
The sociable red winged blackbird gathers in large groups outside of the breeding season, usually after the last brood has fledged. On the one hand, they devour large quantities of harmful insects, on the other hand, to the annoyance of many farmers, they cause considerable damage to orchards or grain fields. Many red winged blackbirds are killed by farmers with poisoned rice. The birds die after two to three days from destruction of the kidneys.
Despite this control measure, the number of red winged blackbirds has increased steadily. Farmers grew more crops so the birds could survive the harsh winters. Another reason is the frequency of mild winters. In South Dakota , the number of marsh plants has increased, so more clutches have been hatched. A study in North and South Dakota found that the population there increased by 33% between 1996 and 1999.
The species achieved a certain level of awareness because of the puzzling bird deaths in the USA in the winter of 2010–2011. Around 500 kilometers north of Pointe Coupee , after New Year's Eve on January 1, 2011, massive numbers of birds fell from the sky and were picked up dead. Experts puzzled why thousands of birds fell from the sky over the town of Beebe . Most of them were red winged blackbirds. Veterinarians from the state veterinary commission ruled out in their preliminary report that diseases or viruses were responsible for the massive deaths. All major organs were healthy. The birds could have been startled by New Year's Eve fires and flew around in the night, which they otherwise do not, as they have trouble seeing in the dark. An ornithologist who works for a government agency said the red winged blackbird showed signs of physical trauma. It is also possible that the swarm was hit by lightning or hail at a great height. At least some of the birds were killed by poison designed by the US Department of Agriculture. They had caused damage to feeding places through eating and dropping.
Subspecies
Twenty-two subspecies are known:
- Agelaius phoeniceus aciculatus Mailliard , 1915 occurs in Kern County in southern California .
- Agelaius phoeniceus arctolegus Oberholser , 1907 occurs in southeast Alaska , western central Canada and the northern central area of the USA .
- Agelaius phoeniceus arthuralleni Dickerman , 1974 is common in northern Guatemala .
- Agelaius phoeniceus bryanti Ridgway , 1887 occurs in the northwestern Bahamas .
- Agelaius phoeniceus californicus Nelson , 1897 occurs in the interior of central California .
- Agelaius phoeniceus caurinus Ridgway , 1901 occurs on the coastal areas in southwest Canada and the northwest and western United States.
- Agelaius phoeniceus floridanus Maynard , 1895 occurs in southern Florida .
- Agelaius phoeniceus fortis Ridgway , 1901 is common in the western-central and southern-central parts of the United States.
- Agelaius phoeniceus grinnelli A. B. Howell , 1917 occurs from El Salvador to the north-west of Costa Rica .
- Agelaius phoeniceus gubernator ( Wagler , 1832) occurs in central Mexico.
- Agelaius phoeniceus littoralis A. H. Howell & Van Rossem , 1928 occurs on the coastal regions in the southeastern United States from Texas to Florida.
- Agelaius phoeniceus mailliardorum Van Rossem , 1926 occurs in the central coastal regions of California.
- Agelaius phoeniceus mearnsi A. H. Howell & Van Rossem , 1928 is distributed in southeast Georgia to south-central Florida.
- Agelaius phoeniceus megapotamus Oberholser , 1919 is distributed from southern Texas to eastern Mexico .
- Agelaius phoeniceus nelsoni Dickerman , 1965 occurs in south-central Mexico.
- Agelaius phoeniceus neutralis Ridgway , 1901 is distributed from southern California to northwestern Mexico.
- Agelaius phoeniceus nevadensis Grinnell , 1914 is distributed in the interior of southwestern Canada and in the northwest and western parts of the USA.
- Agelaius phoeniceus nyaritensis Dickey & Van Rossem , 1925 occurs in western Mexico to western El Salvador.
- Agelaius phoeniceus pallidulus Van Tyne & Trautman , 1946 occurs in the north of the Yucatán Peninsula .
- Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus ( Linnaeus , 1766) is widespread in southeastern Canada and the eastern part of the United States.
- Agelaius phoeniceus richmondi Nelson , 1897 is distributed from southeastern and southern Mexico to northern Costa Rica.
- Agelaius phoeniceus sonoriensis Ridgway , 1887 is widespread in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
literature
There is mostly only English literature on the red winged blackbird:
- William A. Searcy, Ken Yasukawa: Polygyny and Sexual Selection in Red-Winged Blackbirds (= Monographs in Behavior and Ecology ). 1995, ISBN 0-691-03686-1 (English).
- Les D. Beletsky: The Red-Winged Blackbird . The Biology of a Strongly Polygynous Songbird. 1996, ISBN 0-12-084745-0 .
- Les D. Beletsky, Gordon H. Orians: Red-Winged Blackbirds . Decision-Making and Reproductive Success. 1997, ISBN 0-226-04187-5 .
Web links
- Singing voices of the red winged blackbird
- Agelaius phoeniceus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Agelaius phoeniceus in the Internet Bird Collection
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hundreds more birds fall dead from the sky ( Memento from January 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Mass Bird Extinctions in South Dakota: US Department of Agriculture Poisoned Starlings. In: Spiegel Online . January 21, 2011, accessed June 9, 2018 .
- ↑ IOC World Bird List Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds