Have things changed that much from 100 years ago? Back then, harbingers of spring were organ grinders and children playing marbles, crocuses and red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). According to a 1915 edition of the Cambridge Tribune:
The hardy little crocuses have already lifted their heads above the ground; and what is it but spring or the promise of spring that, as some writer has said, “unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil”? In the vicinity of Fresh Pond a red-winged blackbird has been seen and the robin is once more with us … From earliest recollections, playing marbles, playing ball and skipping rope were indications of a return to the glorious springtime. But one more sign we need – the organ grinder, monotonously grinding out his tunes to the accompaniment of dancing children on the sidewalk. Then will the busy housekeeper “get busy,” and an event which to man is sometimes the only “real” sign of spring – house-cleaning – will go on.
Today, we still welcome crocuses and the noisy red-winged blackbird as signs of spring. But I’ve never seen an organ grinder in my life, and my spring cleaning ritual is no different from my summer, fall, and winter cleaning ritual.
We all know the male red-winged blackbird, with its shrill conquereeee call and distinctive scarlet shoulders. The smaller and more subtle female – sometimes mistaken for a sparrow – is brown with white streaks. Despite her small size, she is as formidable as the male.
Red-winged blackbirds have a reputation for eating farmers’ grain but probably eat more insect pests than grain in much of their range. Nonetheless, to protect crops in 1667, the town of Eastham decreed that every homeowner must kill 12 blackbirds or three crows per year. According to Benjamin Franklin, these tactics did not work, as “the blackbirds still molest the corn. I saw them at it the next summer, and there were many scarecrows, if not scare-blackbirds, in the fields, which I often mistook for men.”
Red-winged blackbirds are one of the earliest spring birds to arrive in our region. They leave the South in February and reach Massachusetts around the second week of March. Large flocks of migrant males pass through first, followed by males who plan to reside here. Then migrant females pass through, followed by resident females.
The males stake out marsh territories that they defend against other males. The males that display larger red patches have more status and are more successful at maintaining territories. When the females arrive, they select a nesting site in the territory of an established male. More than one female may nest in each male’s territory. Immature male and female blackbirds arrive on scene last. These birds are floaters, ready to take over if an older male or female dies or is inattentive. Soon females begin to lay eggs, usually of mixed paternity. (Those floaters are sneaky.)
Red-wing blackbirds most often build nests in marshes or other wetlands, often in cattails or rushes. The nests can be elaborately constructed. Ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent described one nest that had been built around 18 reed stalks, with 142 cattail leaves, 705 pieces of grasses and 34 strips of bark that were wound around the reeds 273 times. “The tensile strength of the matting was tested by placing in the nest increasing weights until a weight of four pounds was held before the nest began to slip down the reeds.” Since the average male weighs only 2.3 ounces (the weight of a C battery) and a blackbird egg weighs less than 0.2 ounces, this is a remarkably strong nest indeed.
In this nest, the female lays about four eggs, which hatch in 11 days. The newly hatched chicks are pink and featherless but grow quickly. In only 10 or 11 days the chicks climb out of the nest and hide in the vegetation nearby. The parents care for them for another 10 days.
The chicks keep the parents busy. One observer noted that in three and a half hours, the parents made 55 visits to a nest, feeding the youngsters 43 times. During each visit, the parents often brought three or four insects, and gave one to each open mouth. The birds with the longest necks and biggest open mouths are fed first. (These are invariably the larger male chicks.) The parent pushes an insect down into an open mouth, and if the chick does not immediately swallow it, the parent retrieves the insect and pushes it down the throat of another chick. Red-winged blackbirds feed their youngster an assortment of delights: caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, flies and moths.
Male red-winged blackbirds defend their nests aggressively. They will chase away crows, hawks, geese, herons and other birds much larger than they are. They will also fly at people’s heads from behind, making a harsh peeah cry. Despite their valiant efforts, mortality among juvenile birds is high. Only about 35 percent of nests successfully fledge young blackbirds.
In August, red-winged blackbirds are nowhere to be seen, and you might think they have migrated south. These end-of-summer birds are just laying low in the marsh grasses while they molt their feathers. The males molt first, followed by the females. By September, with new plumage, the birds are ready to fatten up before tackling their southern migration in October and November to Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
A 2019 study published in the journal Science indicates that breeding bird populations in North America have decreased by 29 percent since 1970. More than 90 percent of these losses come from 12 common bird families, including blackbirds, sparrows, warblers and finches. Habitat loss is the driving force behind these declines. Today there are 92 million fewer red-winged blackbirds than there were just 55 years ago, a decline of about one-third. Because red-winged blackbirds are so common, it is difficult to think they might one day disappear. But this was also the attitude people had about the passenger pigeon – a bird so ubiquitous that no one thought it could ever disappear – until it did.
Many people are worried – and rightly so – about deforestation, but the world’s wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. Since red-winged blackbirds and many other species depend on wetlands for survival, it is critical that people and governments protect our wetlands as well as our forests. If we can do this, future generations should be able to witness and enjoy these noisy marshland inhabitants.
Reader photo
Jasmyne F. in Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada, discovered this cabbage white butterfly in her garage, March 21.
Have you taken photos of our urban wild things? Send your images to Cambridge Day and we may use them as part of a future feature. Include the photographer’s name and the general location where the photo was taken.
Jeanine Farley is an educational writer who has lived in the Boston area for more than 30 years. She enjoys taking photos of our urban wild things.
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