black birds

17 years ago

I have never seen blackbirds in my feeders before. I have loads of them this year. Never knew they ate seeds. Did anyone else notice this. This is Northern Ontario.

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Comments (7)

Konrad___far_north
17 years ago
Blackbirds eat mainly insects in summer and seeds in winter.

Konrad
james_m_clark
17 years ago
Looks like you have a batch of red-wings there.

Here in New Jersey, I've seen them at swampy areas, but not at feeders. Sometimes I've gotten hoards of grackles or starlings, which can shoo off the smaller songbirds. To keep them away, I have a circular wall (7 ft. diameter) under my BOSS feeders (hanging from a double shepherd's-crook) covered by a circle of chicken-wire about 4 inches above the ground. And vertical wires around the tube feeders, hanging from a wire circle, keeps them (and HOSP) off the feeders.

If you don't want to keep them entirely away, give them their own platform feeder, or ground area.

For more details. click on the titles under these pictures:
From Back Feeders
From House Sparrow Spooker

- Jim
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hawkeye_wx
17 years ago
The yellow-headed blackbird is pretty neat. I'd love to see one sometime, but my book says they like to nest in/near deep-water marshes. There is a marshy urban flood basin with a shallow creek flowing through it near my house and red-winged blackbirds nest there. I have a male and female rwbb couple coming to my boss feeder every spring. The male usually announces his presence with a loud call.
Konrad___far_north
17 years ago
Hawkeye,
Here, the yellow headed ones are amongst the others but not very many, these are the loudest and you can never forget their squeal.
There is also a marsh not far from my place and the red winged come every year to clean up after the bird feeder.
Picture from today.

Konrad
dzyg
17 years ago
We have always had plenty of grackles, redwings and cowbirds at our feeders, except in winter as they don't overwinter here. Starlings are here year round, ugh!

Konrad, love that yellow headed blackbird, I have only seen one irl. So cool!

Donna
Konrad___far_north
17 years ago
Thanks Donna!
Yellow headed blackbirds arrive about 2 weeks later, just about now, these are fun to watch, it seems they rule the swamp, controlling a large area, you really can notice their presence from the funny vocal.

a close up from last year.

Konrad
dzyg
17 years ago
Oh cool Konrad, thanks for posting another pic of the yellow headed blackbird. They are such cool looking birds, wish we had them around here. I did see one north of here when we were fishing one time long ago. =) At least I can say I actually saw one irl vs just a picture of one.

Donna

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black birds

Comments (7)

Konrad___far_north

james_m_clark

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