Red-Winged Blackbird Nest
by Cheryl Baxter
Title
Red-Winged Blackbird Nest
Artist
Cheryl Baxter
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Nest Description
Females build the nests by winding stringy plant material around several close, upright stems and weaving in a platform of coarse, wet vegetation. Around and over this she adds more wet leaves and decayed wood, plastering the inside with mud to make a cup. Finally, she lines the cup with fine, dry grasses. One nest picked apart by a naturalist in the 1930s had been made by weaving together 34 strips of willow bark and 142 cattail leaves, some 2 feet long. When finished the nest is 4 to 7 inches across and 3 to 7 inches deep.
Red-winged Blackbirds build their nests low among vertical shoots of marsh vegetation, shrubs, or trees. Females choose the nest site with some input from the male. Typically, she puts the nest near the ground (or water surface in a marsh), in dense, grass-like vegetation such as cattails, bulrushes, sedges, and Phragmites in wetlands; goldenrod, blackberry, or willow and alder trees in uplands; and wheat, barley, alfalfa, and rice plants.
Nesting Facts
Clutch Size
2–4 eggs
Number of Broods
1-2 broods
Egg Length
0.9–1.1 in
2.2–2.7 cm
Egg Width
0.6–0.7 in
1.6–1.9 cm
Incubation Period
11–13 days
Nestling Period
11–14 days
Egg Description
Pale blue-green to gray with black or brown markings.
Condition at Hatching
Blind, naked with scant buffy or grayish down, poorly coordinated.
(ALL ABOUT BIRDS.COM)
Uploaded
July 21st, 2014
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Viewed 67 Times - Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/17/2024 at 1:21 PM
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