Today we had new vistors to our feeders. A flock of Redwing Blackbirds. At first I thought they were regular Blackbirds until they turned to the side. The males had a stripe of orange at the top of their wings. Then I saw the females who look very different. I wasn't able to get pictures, so I borrowed some from another website. They are wonderful.
Here is the female.
Hi irish, Good to see you! Glad you like your new visitors.
Hi Pelle, hope you are doing great!
Marshes wouldn't be the same without red-wing black bird inhabitants. They are really cool birds!
They are beautiful. Sorry to say, they were only here for the one day. But, I am so glad I got to see them.
I'm new to the forum. I'm from Rochester, NY where our AAA MLB team is the Rochester Redwings! They stick to farmland and marshes mostly up here but I occasionally see one in the yard. They seem to tag along with the grackles!
That is so very interesting. We have a creek running behind our house with woods and next to a pond, but really marshy or field. So it seems to be a little extra special that they joined the Cardinals for breakfast. I'm feeling a little honored right now. There were about 15 - 20 of them. They must have been migrating to somewhere.
I have moved from Massachusetts to Honolulu, Hi. The birds here are so different then the ones in Ma. They seem to be like combinations of the birds I am use to. Is anyone in Hi. able to help me. Thanks
Hi Nelsi and welcome to the Bird Watchers forum! I don't know if we have anyone else lucky enough to be in Hawaii but I'd love to come over there and help! LOL! It is beautiful there!!
There is a Bird Identification Forum where you could post your pics and hopefully someone will be able to help you. There are many members on Dave's with lots of knowledge who are willing to help. Here is a link to the ID Forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/birdid/all/ . Good luck and if you have any pics to share here please do as I would love to see some of your birds. I vacationed there twice and unfortunately don't remember the birds there (I was a non birder then)!
Good luck,
Rose
Oh Nelsi, how wonderful for you. We are only semi tropical here, but we seem to have a lot of the Eastern Seaboard birds here. We usually have about 15 different species of regular birds that visit our feeders daily. And, then we have about 5 different water types that live on our pond next to us including a family of Canadian Geese that never went home (Mom, Dad & baby).
Please post pictures when you can, I would love to see the different types of birds in HI.
Rhonda
Thank you Rhonda and Rose. (Sounds like a dance team) I love it here. I live with my daughter and her husband at Hickam.. I was able to identify a golden plover. He use to come to the back yard every day at the same time. Then he flew north. I felt like I lost a friend. One thing great about being "old" is you can enjoy all the things you never knew was around. I will try to get some pictures Fond regards Nelsi
I love these, even though they are quite common here.
We have a marsh out front where they flock, nest, and mutiply. These are a real sign of spring for us when they appear after a long winter.
Right now they are flocking and flying around. Teaching the young ones to flock? maybe. Soon there will be thousands singing in the marsh in the mornings and then one day...poof, they will be gone, and they will take the summer with them.
I like your description of the orange on the wing. That is the way the male looks normally, but he can puff up a bit and you will see the bright red. They will flutter their wings at a female, and get so puffed up that they sometimes do not even see that the unimpressed female has already departed for another area.
Glad you were able to see some, even if for only a short time.
It is an exciting thing to see blackbird flocks forming in the summer, a sign of the fall's impending arrival.
Hopefully you will get to see them again as more birds move South.
Well Nelsi, I messed up and lost the post that I had just finished typing and will try again. There are folks here in Daves Garden from all over the world and HI too. I've lived there (Schofield) and know what you mean about the "combo" birds. You'll have to get a HI birds book from the library and learn to check the vent color on the cardinal shaped ones. There are so many incredibly neat birds there, including super endangered ones. There is an little island called Bird Island up on the North Shore where a bunch of them breed, it's great to sit on the beach looking over to the island with binoculars. Enjoy it and please share pictures
Nan
I hope I get to see them again to too. This was a first for me and they were so beautiful. Thank you so much for the sharing the info on the attraction ritual. Just leave it to males to get all puffed up. (Tee Hee)
