Marching at the Marsh by PKHyperFocal
This dude definitely has swag! Here’s a few mostly male facts about red-winged blackbirds from the excellent All About Birds website:
The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, meaning males have many female mates – up to 15 in some cases. In some populations 90 percent of territorial males have more than one female nesting on their territories. But all is not as it seems: one-quarter to one-half of nestlings turn out to have been sired by someone other than the territorial male.
Male Red-winged Blackbirds fiercely defend their territories during the breeding season, spending more than a quarter of daylight hours in territory defense. He chases other males out of the territory and attacks nest predators, sometimes going after much larger animals, including horses and people.
The oldest recorded Red-winged Blackbird was 15 years, 9 months old. It was banded in New Jersey in 1967, and found alive, but injured in Michigan in 1983. It was able to be released after recovering from its injuries.
PK caught this red-winged blackbird on patrol last week. See more in their Feathers gallery on Flickr.
Read up on Red-winged Blackbirds on Michigan in Pictures!
Michigan in Pictures 