Red-winged blackbird—
Many people in the Santa Ynez Valley notice the different birds that come during the winter months and leave in the late spring for the northern regions. One of these species of special interest to me is the Red-winged Blackbird.
For years I have seen them on the Chamberlin Ranch, but for the past two years they started hanging around our pond and cattails at a higher elevation.
The first thing you notice about the male is his call. With several of them singing and trying to stake out their territory, it can get quite loud. Primarily restricted to the wild mustard on the Chamberlin Ranch, the males are busy chasing off other males and swooping back and forth across the road to warn them to stay away from their territory.
The male will defend a territory of 1/8 to 1/4 of an acre by singing from perches with its wings spread open and red shoulder patches exposed. For a very long time around our pond I had trouble finding the females.
The female is not easy to spot because they are solid brown along the top of their bodies with heavy brown streaking along their bellies with a sharp-pointed bill and a buff, whitish eyebrow. They hide out in the reeds and the trees and in the human world we might refer to them as a “Plain Janes.”
These birds are polygamous and average three mates per breeding season. The males arrive in early March with the females arriving mid-to-late March. The female builds a cup-shaped nest and lays 3-5 eggs that are pale blue and marked with zigzag lines of brown or black.
The young will hatch in about 12 days and leave the nest in 10 to 13 days after hatching. These birds feed on seeds, grain, insects and spiders, but they will come to birdfeeders for cracked corn, dried sunflower seeds still on the stock and seed mixes. So take a drive past the fields of mustard on the Chamberlin Ranch.
Stop to check out whether there are any Red-winged Blackbirds and listen to their calls. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
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