Red-wings and Yellow-heads

     It's always thrilling to me to see north-bound flocks of red-winged blackbirds winging into Lancaster County, Pennsylvania early in March.  Handsome male red-wings are black with red shoulder patches that flash and flicker like red coals in a furnace when great masses of these birds are in flight.
      Male yellow-headed blackbirds of the American mid-west are equally striking with their yellow heads, throats and chests, and white wing patches, on black-feathered bodies.  Males of both these kinds of blackbirds are exciting and inspiring to experience, either in pure groups of one or the other species in flight, or in mixed gatherings of both species together, allowing us to see all the brilliant colors of these blackbird species.
     The greatest beauties of the males of each kind of blackbird is most evident when the birds are flying in flocks, particularly mixed groups.  And males of both species raise their wings when swaying on top of cattails, phragmites, reeds and tall grasses to sing through spring and summer, which shows off the red or white wing patches to females of each kind.  Those striking colors attract females of each type to the males for mating and raising young.  Furthermore, those colors repel other males of each species, and they are a joy for us to see.
     Though not great songsters, male blackbirds' singing is representative of cattail, reedy and grassy marshes, which is a joy to hear.  Red-wing males repeatedly utter a simple "kon-ga-reeee" while lifting their wings and swaying on a plant.  Male yellow-heads strain out a wheezy, buzzy string of notes that hardly can be called singing.  Yet both kinds of vocalizations are successful in attracting females of each kind to mate and rear offspring.
     The related and adaptable red-winged blackbirds and yellow-headed blackbirds nest abundantly in freshwater marshes across much of North America.  Red-wings hatch young across most of North America, from northwestern Canada, across southern Canada, in all of the United States and the northern part of Mexico.  Yellow-heads, however, nest in the western half of the United States and southwestern Canada.  Obviously, their ranges overlap in western North America, filling somewhat similar niches and, perhaps, causing some rivalry for territories and food in their limited habitats.
     The camouflaged, but, in their own way, attractive female red-wings and yellow-heads tend to nursery building and egg laying, while their handsome mates sing to maintain territory and chase away rivals and predators, with much excited calling and swift diving at the interlopers.  Both genders of each species walks on the ground in fields and other open habitats to feed on invertebrates, seeds and grain.  And both genders of each kind help feed the young until their independence.    
     Beautiful and abundant birds, red-wings and yellow-heads are always a joy to see and hear in spring and summer on fresh-water marshes where they nest, or in great hordes on the wing.  One can spot their beauties in marshes and fields across most of North America, adding more inspiration to human life attuned to nature.