Red-winged Blackbird (flock)

Description:

"One of the most abundant birds across North America, and one of the most boldly colored, the Red-winged Blackbird is a familiar sight atop cattails, along soggy roadsides, and on telephone wires. Glossy-black males have scarlet-and-yellow shoulder patches they can puff up or hide depending on how confident they feel. Females are a subdued, streaky brown, almost like a large, dark sparrow. In the North, their early arrival and tumbling song are happy indications of the return of spring."-Cornell Lab Ornithology site. These pictures show males, females, and some younger males (I think).

Notes:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great video on these birds. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-w... I saw this flock landing and flying away several times this morning. There were a few who liked the suet feeders and seeds in the other feeders, but most of them preferred foraging on the ground for all the spilled seeds & whatever else they found.