Nest Building by Female Red-winged Blackbird

[Ira Runyan]

The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, meaning males have many female mates – up to 15 in some cases. The female Red-winged Blackbird is a subdued brown, with streaks of lighter colorations — and much shyer than her male counterpart. Her brownish coloring serves to camouflage her and the nest, while she’s incubating. Females stay low in the vegetation, searching for food (eating primarily seeds and insects), and weaving their amazing nests. Constructed entirely over the course of three to six days — with no help from the males — the nests are located in cattails, rushes, grasses, or in alder or willow bushes. Located near the water’s surface, the nest is a basket constructed of grasses, sedge, and mosses, lined with mud and bound to surrounding grasses or branches. Here are photographs of a female collecting building materials for her nest.

[Tim Abbott]

Great captures Ira