Male Red-wing Blackbird Behavior
Today I witnessed what appeared to be a male red-winged blackbird attacking another male red-wing that had been recently road-killed. I was able to capture a short, fuzzy video of this act with my digital camera.
Could this have been an act of territoriality? This time of the year is when male red-wings begin "staking their claim" and defending areas to be used during mating and nesting. They are polygynous, meaning they have more than one mate and they will defend each and everyone of them from other male red-wings. Apparently even though this one had been road-killed its instincts drove it to attack it anyway.
Could this have been an act of territoriality? This time of the year is when male red-wings begin "staking their claim" and defending areas to be used during mating and nesting. They are polygynous, meaning they have more than one mate and they will defend each and everyone of them from other male red-wings. Apparently even though this one had been road-killed its instincts drove it to attack it anyway.
Labels: redwing blackbird
posted by Jace Stansbury at 9:02 PM
4 Comments:
Amazing, nature is not kind. Your previous post on the snake is great also. Your tactic of backing off and waiting for the snake to re-appear on it's own is one I have employed many times. Great blog.
-Gene (Seattle)
It's a pretty definitive message, Jace, and gets the message across.
Instincts: we had, for two years, a male cardinal who flew at the window repeatedly until he'd leave bloodstreaks on it. Haven't seen him, in this, the third year. We'd probably recognize him too - he was the singularly most hideous cardinal you've ever seen.
Gene- yeah....playing with snakes is cool. Thanx for the compliment- I hope to have a new snake post in a few days.
Wayne- check out this site on birds and "window collisions"-
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/attracting/challenges/window_collisions
Jace
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