Female Red-winged Blackbird Acrylic Print

A stocky, broad-shouldered blackbird with a slender, conical bill and a medium-length tail. Red-winged Blackbirds often show a hump-backed silhouette while perched. Females are crisply streaked and dark brownish overall, paler on the breast and often show a whitish eyebrow. Females build the nests by winding stringy plant material around several close, upright stems and weaving in a platform of coarse, wet vegetation. Around and over this she adds more wet leaves and decayed wood, plastering the inside with mud to make a cup. Finally, she lines the cup with fine, dry grasses. One nest picked apart by a naturalist in the 1930s had been made by weaving together 34 strips of willow bark and 142 cattail leaves, some 2 feet long. When finished the nest is 4 to 7 inches across and 3 to 7 inches deep.

Linda is an author (L.C.Bennett Stern), blogger and backyard birder, who loves living in a small town on the East Coast of the United States. She prefers taking photos of subjects in nature and architecture ... with a smile, she adds: people are so unruly. Please feel free to manipulate my photos (to the extent possible) to suit the items you wish to order, including changing the background color on many items. (Note: Some images cannot be resized to appear correctly on Mugs, even with resizing...check carefully before ordering, to avoid disappointment.) I welcome you to stop by frequently to see updates to my portfolio.