Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
About 9-1/2 inches long, the red-wing breeds in most of North
America; it winters in the southern half of United States and down
clear to Costa Rica.
The prairies of the upper Mississippi Valley, with their numerous
sloughs and ponds, furnish ideal nesting places for red-wings, and
this region has become the great breeding ground for the species,
pouring forth the vast flocks that sometimes play havoc with
grainfields. Red-wing Blackbirds are gregarious, living in flocks and breeding
in communities. Their food is about one-fourth insects and threefourths
vegetable.