It's the Weekend: Red Winged Blackbird

 

Twenty or more years ago, i "discovered" red-winged blackbirds while on a cross-country road trip. They. were all over the place through the midwest and prairie states so, at first, i assumed that to be their range. Then i discovered that they thrive at Bonelli Park, and every spring i make a point to look for them there. They became my favorite songbird. I now know that they are indigenous to nearly all of north America, and much of central America too - with a population of some 150 million or so. Today, i made a further discovery -  they live in the wash, the Out There, perhaps not in great numbers, but they are there, apparently living comfortably, and noisily along the somewhat marshy lower portion of the one reliable stream channel. I watched the one shown here for a considerable time, listening to its distinctive call - conk-la-Ree, as Jasper Davidoff described it for Audubon magazine last year, and at least two other calls that i was not previously familiar with. His calls were not being made in vain, as there were similar from somewhere nearby. 

Did you know that the name red-winged blackbird is a bit of a misnomer, as there is also a band of yellow feathers below the red; i guess the name red and yellow-winged blackbird is a little too cumbersome. By the way, only the males have the distinctive black feathers with the red and yellow accents; the females have their own distinctive brown plumage with perhaps a little red on the shoulders. 

I know, you want to know how they got those red markings. Well, according to the Chitimacha people, of today's Louisiana, there was a day that a man became extremely angry with everyone, so angry that he set fire to the sea marshes because he wanted to burn the world. A little blackbird saw what he was doing, and flew up into a tree calling out "Ku nam wi cu! Ku nam wi cu! - the world is all going to burn" (personally, i think Mr. Davidoff's interpretation of the call is more accurate, but perhaps in the language of the Chitimacha, "Ku nam wi cu" is more apt). Anyway, the man grew angry at the bird, threatening to kill it if it did not go away, but the bird just continued to callout its warning. Finally, the man threw a shell and hit the bird on the wings making them bleed, and so the red-winged blackbird has been marked ever since.

There is other truth in the above story as well. For instance red-winged blackbirds are territorial, and will spend a quarter of the day aggressively defending their territory, and have been known to dive-bomb people and animals who get too close. Additionally, that call of theirs, that "conk-la-Ree," or "Ku nam wi cu" is their intimidating first line of defense, a warning cry before the attack.

Anyway, there you go, more than you likely wanted to know about red-winged blackbirds. But hey, we've go a weekend ahead of us now, so go out and look for your own red-winged blackbirds. What every you do, make some time to get out, maybe even Out There, you never know what you'll see.

ah shade