Red-winged Blackbird

One of the birds I enjoy observing are the Red-winged Blackbirds, especially the males.  It seems half of their time is spent defending their territories. Not just from other members of their own species, but they will go after many others, no matter the size difference. From members of the crow family, raptors, Great Blue Heron and others. More than a few times I have seen them accelerate and make contact with much larger birds in the air. In many cases, those larger birds are simply flying by, that makes no difference to the male blackbirds.  Stay out of their territory.

As in this image, they will show off their red shoulder field marks, to keep their rivals away and to attract females. The males are able to hide the red epaulettes, to look less dominant. Making it easier to intrude on other male’s territory and be less combative. With the Red-winged Blackbird, you don’t have to go far to locate them during the spring and summer. Even though their population has declined the last forty years, they are one of the most abundant birds in the wild. I’m already looking forward to them returning next year.

Bald Eagle and a Red-winged Blackbird

Still my favourite part of nature is when I get a nice surprise, the more I get out there the more surprises I encounter. I had gone for a drive after dinner, it was a quiet evening, but always good to be out. On my way back, I decided to check out the nearby lakes. On top of a dead spruce tree was an adult Bald Eagle perched. I parked my car to the side, rolled down the window and got a few pictures. Looked at the images, made a small adjustment to the setting and started taking more pictures of the eagle. To my amazement a male Red-winged Blackbird came into the frame, trying it best to harass the much larger eagle away. An adult Bald Eagle can have a wingspan of 2.3 meters and weigh up to 6.3 kg, while blackbird can a have a wingspan of 40 cm and weight up to 77 grams. The blackbird did its best to move off the eagle, the eagle just looked at the bird and stayed perched. I was all excited getting both birds in the plane of focus and could see in the image eagle’s eyes looking at the blackbird. The Red-winged Blackbird had no luck moving the eagle, but I did, getting to see and to get pictures of the small interaction between the two species.

Bald Eagle and Red-winged Blackbird 190823 Amar Athwal.jpg