Hi Tweets,

Apologies for the length of this message. I wanted to put out a question
that came up in the birding section of the NatureTalk.net discussion forum
regarding redwing blackbird behavior to see if anyone in Tweeterland might
have some thoughts. I assume the questioner is from somewhere east of us
due to the cardinal reference, but the behaviors should still be familiar to
us:

?Yesterday evening, as I was walking along an almost unused dirt road on the
west edge of the nature center, I made this observation that has left me
curious.
The road is bordered quite thickly on both sides by young, seven to ten foot
willows, growing in thicket like profusion, with honeysuckles and red osier
dogwood mixed in. West of the road, past the thicket, are the train tracks,
and east is the edge of a cattail swamp.
As I walked down the road, I noticed the blackbirds, along with song
sparrows, robins, a cardinal pair, swamp sparrows, yellow rumped warblers
and a possible kinglet pair.
It seemed like the song sparrows, robins, and cardinals were unconcerned,
for the most part by my presence. Many times, they would be singing quite
near. However, the blackbirds would not. I would often notice one of them
perched a couple feet up, over my head, giving his 'check' call, and
curiously, there would always be 2 or 3 more within five to ten feet.
Now, I know that they should be territorial right now, so why this
apparently dense cluster of males, with only one giving the call? Oh, the
other males were always perched lower than the male giving the call.
It seems strange to me that I would encounter three or four at a time, in
this manner, when they should be spread out in territories, right?
Another question is, why did it seem like my presence seemingly affected
them so much, but not the robins, or especially the song sparrows? The swamp
sparrow that I saw was feeding on the ground, running in VERY quick bursts,
within a few feet of me at the same time the red wings were grouping up with
the aforementioned behavior.?

And after I asked him about epaulettes/dominance:

?You are absolutely right on, Mark. I forgot to mention that in my original
post. The male who was perched highest also displayed his complete
epaulettes. It looked like he also hunched a bit, or was holding his wings
out at the shoulders.
The other males that were right there were perched lower and quiet. They
displayed epaulettes, but only a slight bit of the yellow could be seen...no
red.
So, yes...I agree that the bird who was making the calls was the most
dominant. But there again, why, if they are supposed to be so territorial,
and assuming that he is in his territory, is he allowing other males to be
within that territory? Why aren't the other males busy defending "their"
territory? If they came over to "mob" me, why aren't they all alarming? Is
it possible that because their territories are so small, they all have an
investment in the neighbooring territories, so they go to see what is going
on next door, in the case of alarm, but at the same time act respectfully by
not displaying epalets??

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mark D. Jordahl
Adult Programs Director
Wilderness Awareness School
Duvall, Washington
http://www.wildernessawareness.org
http://NatureTalk.net