Some Utah Birds. The Red-Winged Blackbird

SOME UTAH BIRDS. BY CLAUDE T. BARNES, M. S. P. R,, MEMBER NATIONAL ASSOCI- ATION AUDUBON SOCIETY. 2— THE REDWING BLACKBIRD- {Agelaius Phoeniceus.) One bright day last April, when I was listening with eager- ness for the songs of newly-arrived feathered friends, there jumped up suddenly, from the plashy bottom of a willowy marsh by the roadside, a lustrous, red- winged blackbird which at once alighted on the top of a cat's-tail and sang with delightful intonation his song: "Gug-lug-gee-e-e-e-e-e-e!" As he was the herald of the most charming season of the year, I did not injure him, but crouched low beside the rushes, even wetting my feet in the fenny ground, and watched with gladness the handsome fellow as he gave forth his beloved, deep, swampy note of Spring. Soon, bits of black and red appeared elsewhere, in the morass; but there were no birds of lighter color, streaked with brown — a fact which told me, immediately, that the females had not yet arrived. In sloughs, beside the railway tracks, in the marshes of the fields, in the willows and rushes of ponds and river banks — in fact, anywhere, in Utah, where the ground is swampy and grasses, cat tails or willows plentiful, there also is the redwing blackbird joining his gurgling song with the harsh but musical croak of the big, spotted frog. Perhaps every boy in Utah who is old enough to ramble alone through the meadow, knows a male redwing, when he sees it; but few recognize the female when she is alone. The male bird is lustrous, velvet-black, burnished with a metal-

682 IMPROVEMENl ERA. lie greenish reflection. On the bend or shoulder of each wing is a patch of vermilion-red, and just behind this, a tinge of brownish- yellow. This red and buff, at the bends of the wings, are the only markings that relieve the otherwise uniform velvet-black of the male bird. The female is not black, but, above, brown streaked with ru- Red-Wingtd Blackbird. Upper figure, Male; Lower figure, Female. fous and yellowish, and beneath, white streaked with brown. The upper part of the throat, one stripe above, and one below, each eye, are brownish-yellow. In both the male and female redwing, the bill is large and stout, and the tail much rounded. In size, each is a little smaller than a robin, though, when held in hand, the male blackbird, especi- ally, is seen to be more slender and trim.

— SOME UTAH BIRDS 683 In the Utah fen, is sometimes seen two other blackbirds the yellow-headed {Xanthocephalus icterocephalus) and Brewer's blackbird {Seolecophagus cyanocephalus) The latter is black all . over, and is quite common, though no more interesting than a young crow. The blackbirds belong to a notable family the orioles — (ideridce). The bobolink, the cowbird, the meadow lark, Bullock's oriole C'the hang bird") and the grackles are all close relatives. The redwinged blackbird is found all over the United States; and specimens I have examined, taken from the back water sloughs of the upper Mississippi, the marshes of South Chicago and the swamps of the Huron river at Ann Arbor, are identical in coloration with those taken in the fens of our own state. The male redwings arrive in April, take possession of the tops of poplars or other tall trees near their regular nesting ground, and chant a chorus so sweet in its peculiar cadences, so deep, penetrating and paludal that, even at a distance of a mile or more, one listens with rapture, and walks filled with an exquisite sense of Spring. To Thoreau, the redwing sang "Conk-a-ree!"; and Emerson said: The redwing flutes his "0-ka-lee." Chapman describes his song as "Kong-quer-ree;" Gibson, "Gl-oogl-eee" and another, "Gug-lug-geee." All decide that the chant has three syllables, and ends in "e." I have, however, while hay-making in the meadow, listened for hours to a concert given by a row of redwings perched along the telegraph wires, and have concluded that their songs consist of such delicious, swampy, fluty gurgles that words cannot adequately express them. Matthews writes the redwings song in musi^ thus^ Twice 8 . P > f w—^ '^—w—»—d—id—^—^—^—ii—^—^—^ — Sesej Gug - lug - gee -e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e! If, however, when blossoms and green are filling one's heart with serenity and gladness, a magnificent redwing suddenly appear

. . 684 IMPRO VEMENT ERA and flute his "0-ka-lee," the song will never be forgotten, but rather cherished as the sign that nature is once more budding in loveliness A week or so after the arrival of the males, the females ap- pear; and in May the nesting season begins. The nests are usually neatly woven cups consisting, on the outside, of rough grasses or weeds, lined on the inside with finer materials of the same nature, or with sedges. Of course, the nest is always built either over standing or running water, or on boggy ground. Sometimes, the outer part is strongly interwoven with reeds, which support it; sometimes, the whole nest is pensile like that of the Bullock's oriole, being suspended from the crotch of a Nest of Red- Winged Blackbird. willow or sapling limb; and, again, it may be on the ground in a clump of grass. The eggs average about an inch in length; and are of a light- bluish cast, lined, blotched and marbled, at the larger ends, with light, purple and black. The male bird, which mates with more than one female, seems like Argus, to have a hundred eyes, so vigilant is he in protecting his nests. If an intruder get too n,ear, he dashes about close over-

SOME UTAH BIRDS. 685 head, and remonstrates, with almost frightening persistence, against the danger to his domain. If the nest be destroyed, he is in great distress for days, but soon builds another in the same place. After raising one or two broods, the birds gather, in August, into flocks; and, at this time, they are more than ordinarily varied in appearance, as young birds, which at first resemble the mother, do not get cheir full plumage until the third Summer. As Autumn approaches, the blackbirds gather in immense numbers previous to their migrations southward. Last fall, I saw a flock of about four thousand individuals gleaning in a grainfield a half mile north of the Rio Grand Western station at Kaysville. Though much has been said against the red- winged blackbirds, they are, on the whole, a benefit to the farmer. In March, April, May, June and July, they feed almost exclusively on obnoxious insects, the number that they destroy in a single season in the United States, being estimated by Wilson to be twelve thousand million! In fact, insects constitute about one fourth of the red- wing's yearly food. In June it eats, largely, weevils, snout beet- les, snails and crustaceans. At other times, it feeds on army worms, crane flies, white grubs, root borers, ants, chinch bugs, root worms, root lice, and green locusts. There is a species of cutworm (carncedes rubefadalis) which is ruinous to swampy grass lands; but if the blackbird is near, the pest is soon done away with. Like the meadow lark, the blackbird gormandizes on grass- hoppers when that delicacy is in season. In winter, the redwing exists mostly on weed seed, ragweed, barn grass, and smartweed being eaten regularly from August until April. In fact, it seldom injures the barnyard or orchard; and it prefers weed seed to grain. The young are fed exclusively on insects such as plant lice, grub worms, cut worms, earth worms and caterpillars. Of course, the blackbird eats some green corn and standing grain; but my observations lead me to believe that most of the grain which it takes is gleaned from the fields after the reaper has gone. Charming reminder of spring, the handsome ornament of swamps and sloughs, benefactor of man, the lustrous redwing ought to sing, undisturbed, his "0-ka-lee." Salt Lake City. Utah.