Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoeniceus
A single male may defend a territory shared by up to 15 different females, making them highly polygynous.
- Scientific name
- Agelaius phoeniceus
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Passeriformes › Icteridae › Agelaius
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Freshwater and saltwater marshes, wet meadows, prairies, and agricultural fields.
- Diet
- Omnivorous; primarily seeds and waste grain, switching to insects like dragonflies and beetles during the breeding season.
- Range
- Canada, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica
- Size
- Length: 17-24 cm; Wingspan: 30-37 cm; Weight: 32-77 g
- Lifespan
- 2 to 15 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Wetland drainage, conversion of grasslands to intensive agriculture, and pesticide use reducing insect prey.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless but highly territorial. During nesting season, males may dive-bomb humans who get too close to nests. Maintain a respectful distance from cattail clusters to avoid bird stress; if dive-bombed, simply move away from the area.
The red-winged blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus ) is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and northwestern Costa Rica. It may winter as far north as Pennsylvania and British Columbia, but northern populations are generally migratory, moving south to Mexico and the...
Photo: anonymous, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
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