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Red-winged Blackbird — Part 1
Adult Male--Black except the shoulders, which are bright scarlet edged with light buff.
Immature Male--Somewhat rusty coloured, with the scarlet of the shoulders replaced by dull orange and black.
Adult Female--Upper parts dull buff and black streaked; under parts streaked blackish and white, the throat tinged with dull orange buff, and shoulders sometimes tinged with pinkish red. Length (Male)--9.51.
Breeding Range--Throughout the Eastern States, from Florida northward.
The nest varies greatly both in its construction and situation; usually of weeds and coarse grasses, lined with hair, placed in a large tussock of grass, cat-tails, or reeds; very often in alders and sometimes in wild rose or other bushes, generally within four or five feet of the ground though occasionally it is placed at a much greater height.
Most nests are about three inches deep inside, but some that are built like the orchard oriole's are much deeper.
The eggs, 3 to 5 in number, are very pale greenish blue or pearly white, with either blotches or scrawls of dark purplish brown, faint cloudy blotches of dull purple brown, and spots of black. Some few eggs have no distinct markings, only faint cloudy blotches of purplish brown. Size--1.00 x .75. See Fig. 6, Plate C.
These common but strikingly coloured birds may be found during the breeding season in almost any swampy place where there is a river or pond nearby. In the neighbourhood of New York they begin nesting about the first week in May, and lay two sets of eggs, the second set being laid towards the end of June. I have found these nests in a wild rose bush, hung over and within twenty-one inches of the water, resembling in construction the nest of the orchard oriole, but much more roughly made.