The Children's Book of Birds

by Olive Thorne Miller

Blackbirds are walkers. They dress mostly in black, and they are of medium size. Some of them will generally be found on the ground in a marsh or a meadow. They are social birds, that is, they go in flocks. Fond as they are of society, however, there is one time when they are willing to be a little apart from the blackbird world. That is when they are nesting and rearing a young family. Two interesting birds of this family are the red-winged blackbird and the cow-blackbird or cowbird.

The Red-winged Blackbird is found all over the country. He is not so large as a robin, and is black all over, excepting one place on the wings. On these are bright stripes of red and orange, which seem to be on the shoulders when the wings are closed. They make the bird very gay, when he spreads them out in flying.

The red-wing's mate is a modest-looking bird in stripes of brown and black. She is a plodding sort of a creature, too. She walks about on the ground, looking for grubs or insects so busily that she hardly seems to see anything else.

The nest is usually in a marsh. At any rate, it must be near the water, for red-wings are as fond of the water as any old sailor. It is hung between reeds, or in the branches of a low bush. It is a comfortable, bag-like affair, deep enough and big enough to hold the restless blackbird babies.

While the mother red-wing is sitting, her mate stays near her and sings a great deal. His song is a loud, sweet "hwa-ker-ee," which may be heard a long way off. When nestlings are out, he is one of the most busy and fussy of birds. He helps in the feeding, and seems to be a good and careful father. But when the young ones are grown up and able to feed themselves, a curious thing happens. All the gay red-wings in a neighborhood come together in a flock again. And all the young ones and the mothers stay in another flock.

The red-wing is a very nervous and uneasy fellow. While his mate is sitting he is always on guard to see that no harm comes to her. In the picture you can see he looks much concerned, as if he had discovered something. Then he makes a great row if any one comes near. He will give such cries of distress that one would think he was hurt, or that his nestlings were being stolen away. If the enemy is a crow, come to feed quietly on the meadow, he will fly at him, try to peck his head, and annoy him till he goes away. If it is a person who alarms him, he will circle about over his head with loud cries, and now and then swoop down as if he meant to attack him. In fact, he shows so much distress that it is not very pleasant to stay near him.

The young red-wing is just as uneasy and fussy as his papa. As soon as he is able to get out of the nest, he scrambles about in the bushes. He never stays two minutes in one place, and every time his mother comes with food she has to hunt him up before she can give it to him.

The red-wing is fond of green corn, and is often shot by farmers, but he is also a famous insect eater, and earns all the corn he gets. He eats numbers of cut-worms, and other insects, and in some of the prairie States he does great good by eating locusts and their eggs. Besides these, he likes variety, and is fond of the seeds of weeds. Ragweed and smartweed seeds are dainties to him as some nuts are to you, and he eats a great many. So unless a large flock comes to one place to disturb the crops, you may be sure they do more good than harm. So says the Department I told you about.

The young red-winged blackbird is a droll fellow, and has decided notions of his own. Mr. Keyser tells a story of one he picked up. He was put in with some other young birds,—meadowlarks and catbirds. They were all babies together, and all used to being fed. So when the little red-wing got something to eat, they would open their mouths and beg for it, in the pretty bird-baby way. At first he fed them, though he wasn't much more than a baby himself; but they liked it so well that they coaxed everything away from him. He soon got tired of that, and at last refused to feed them at all.

This little bird liked to play jokes on the sober young meadowlarks. His way was to seize one by the wing or tail and dance around the floor, dragging his victim after him. The young larks scolded and held back, and at last they learned to stop his pranks. They did it by throwing themselves over on their backs, and holding up their claws ready to fight.