I don’t know about you but for me at least, hearing the silence of winter break with the sweet sounds of a red-winged blackbird for the first time of the year is nothing short of pure gold in my book.
As I write this blog post, February is not even halfway over and I am already hearing red-winged blackbirds sing and have done so for a couple weeks now.
That is quite unusual, maybe even a bit strange for northern Utah where this time of year we should be hearing the dull roar of the neighbors’ snow blower starting up in the morning and not songbirds singing high atop a stand of cattails.
If you spend anytime out in a wetland during springtime, you have most likely heard the sweet call of the male red-winged blackbird.
A very distinctive call indeed, and one that, much like other songbirds, has its place and purpose in nature.
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During spring, male red-winged blackbirds cling to the tops of cattails and other tall vegetation to sing their sweet song to both attract a female blackbird as a mate and establish their nesting territory.
When two rival male red-winged blackbirds are in close proximity of each other, both birds put on quite a display to try and outperform the other by fanning out their wings and tails and showing off their bright red scapular feathers.
It is quite a beautiful sound and display, one I never get tired of watching or photographing for that matter.
Most likely due to the unseasonably warm and dry weather we have been experiencing lately, red-winged blackbirds have already started to sing and display even though the female blackbirds are nowhere to be seen yet.
Today, in fact, I visited Farmington Bay and photographed and recorded all the images and video for this blog post of singing male red-winged blackbirds, something I never thought in a million years I would be able to do during the second week of February.
Typically, I start to hear the red-winged blackbird singing around the middle of March, but this year with regards to bird watching, it has been anything but normal.
Red-winged blackbirds are a common songbird found in wetland habitats so anyone looking to watch, hear, and photograph a singing blackbird should look for cattails first and foremost.
One of the best places here in northern Utah to find the red-winged blackbird is Farmington Bay and the adjacent Eccles Wildlife Education Center grounds.
That is where the blackbird images and video for the blog post were obtained today where I watched numerous male red-winged blackbirds singing both during the early morning and late evening hours which, by the way, are the best times to hear the male red-winged blackbird sing.
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