Fifty Birds of Town and City
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
About 9-1/2 inches long, the red-wing blackbird breeds in most of North America; it winters
in the southern half of United States and down clear to Costa Rica.
The prairies of the upper Mississippi Valley, with their numerous sloughs and
ponds, furnish ideal nesting places for the red-wing blackbirds, and this region has become the great
breeding ground for the species, pouring forth the vast flocks that sometimes play havoc
with grainfields. Red-wings are gregarious, living in flocks and breeding in
communities. Their food is about one-fourth insects and three-fourths vegetable.
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