Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Breeding Range. (Fig. 149). Common, locally abundant, in the Turtle Mountains, and throughout the Prairie Pothole Region; fairly common in the Agassiz Lake Plain Region, and throughout the Southwestern Slope Region.
Breeding Habitat. Deep-marsh zones of ponds, lakes, and shallow river impoundments including emergent associations dominated by cattails, hardstem bulrush, slender bulrush, river bulrush, and alkali bulrush; shallow-marsh zones of ponds, lakes, and shallow river impoundments including emergent associations dominated by whitetop, slough sedge, tall mannagrass, common spikerush, sloughgrass, giant burreed, marsh smartweed, shortawn foxtail, western waterplantain, narrowleaf waterplantain, and arumleaf arrowhead; wet-meadow zones of natural ponds and lakes including associations dominated by prairie cordgrass and western dock; fen zones of wetlands including associations dominated by phragmites, water sedge, beaked sedge, fowl mannagrass, and softstem bulrush; thickets of shrubs and small trees on wet or moist sites including various species of shrub willows, spiraea, western rose, etc.; patches of mature wolfberry in mixed-grass prairie; hayfields and retired cropland dominated by alfalfa, sweetclover, smooth brome, tall wheatgrass, etc.; and weedy roadsides.
Nesting. Breeding season: Late March to late August; peak, mid-May to late July. Adult males normally begin to establish breeding territories during late March and early April, while adult females usually arrive about three weeks later. Extreme egg dates (62 nests): May 15 [1973] in LaMoure County (M. L. Avery) to July 13 [1962] in Stutsman County (RES). Extreme nestling dates (10 nests): June 9 [1915] in Richland County (R. Kellogg) to July 28 [1970] in Stutsman County (P. F. Springer). Extreme dates of dependent young out of the nest (14 records): June 17 [1963] in Benson County to August 21 [1962] in Stutsman County (RES).
Many types of plants are used for nest support. Details concerning 48 nest sites indicate that 15 were situated in hardstem bulrush, 8 in slough sedge, 5 in wolfberry, 4 in whitetop, 4 in alkali bulrush, 2 in river bulrush, 2 in western rose, and 8 in a variety of other plants including common cattail, Canada thistle, western wheatgrass, sweetclover, tall manna-grass, and kochia. Twenty-eight nests were reported over water with rims ranging from 5 to 24 inches (mean, 13 inches) above the water surface. Water depths beneath 20 of these nests ranged from 3 to 19 inches and averaged 9 inches. Eight reported nests were located on the upland at heights ranging from 8 to 42 inches (average, 19 inches) above the ground.
The nesting of this species in relation to the Yellow-headed Blackbird was described by Bishop (1904) as follows: "It nests in abundance in the same marshes as the Yellow-headed Blackbird,"... ..."but while the Yellow-headed Blackbird selects the higher reeds growing in deeper water in which to place its nest, the Redwing takes a tussock on the edge of the slough, or, rarely, fastens its nest in a clump of marsh grass."
Indicated clutch size (38 nests): 2 to 7 eggs; mean, 3.6 eggs.
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| Figure 149. Breeding Range of Red-winged Blackbird. |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/bbofnd/species/4980.htm
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Menlo Park, CA [caww54]
