The pair of Red-winged blackbirds that nested in our neighborhood last summer stayed until early November and then disappeared for a few months—they were probably sipping umbrella drinks on some warm beach while we shivered.
The other day I heard my first spring flock of Red-winged blackbirds through closed windows. Before long several of them swooped down from the treetops to snatch peanuts from the feeders.
So far I’ve only seen males. The females look nothing like their partners and are generally much quieter.
Red-winged Blackbirds feed and roost with other blackbirds like starlings, grackles and cowbirds, and those flocks can reach thousands or even millions of birds. I don’t have that many peanuts, so I’m glad that of the hundreds of blackbirds that sat in the oak and hickory trees chattering away, only a half-dozen or so visited the feeders.