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BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Agelaius phoeniceus
Red-winged Blackbird

 
Scientific Name: Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766)
English Name: Red-winged Blackbird
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-RWBL
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Passeriformes Icteridae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5 (Oct 2025)
Provincial Status: S5B,S5N (Mar 2015)
BC List: Yellow
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act:
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description: Adult males are black with an orange-red and yellowish shoulder patch (colorful patch may be hidden; yellow part may be absent). Adult females have a heavily streaked breast, a pale stripe over the eye, and usually have reddish tones on the back. Juveniles resemble adult females. The bill is straight and tapers to a point. Length is about 8.75 inches (22 cm).
Global Reproduction Comments: Nesting begins usually in April-May in most areas, sometimes in late March, and may continue into July. Clutch size is usually 3-5 (often 4) in the United States. Incubation, by the female, lasts 11-12 days. Nestlings are tended by both parents or, in some areas, by the female only. Young are able to leave the nest in about 10 days.

Most males have multiple females nesting in their territories. Up to 15 females have been found nesting within the territory of a single male, although the average number is 5 or fewer.
Global Ecology Comments: Gregarious; travels in large flocks, except during the breeding season. May travel in mixed flocks with cowbirds and grackles. Density of territorial males averaged 0.2-0.7 per ha in favorable habitat (Clark and Weatherhead 1987). Commutes up to 80 kilometers to foraging areas from winter roosts (Meanley 1965, Orians 1961).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		Y /
Y /
Y /
na /
Global Migration Comments: Red-winged blackbirds withdraw from the northern part of the breeding range for winter, returning usually in February-March.
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence)
Global Habitat Comments: Habitat includes freshwater and brackish marshes, bushes and small trees along watercourses, and upland cultivated fields. In migration and winter, this blackbird also occurs in open cultivated lands, plowed fields, pastures, and prairies (AOU 1998). Nests usually are near water, in cattails, rushes, or sedges, occasionally in shrubs or trees.
Food Habits: Granivore: Adult, Immature
Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Approximately 73% of diet is vegetable matter, 27% animal matter (Terres 1980); animal component undoubtedly increases during breeding. Feeds in open fields on grain and seeds. Eats mayflies, moths, beetles, caterpillars, grubs, and mollusks, etc. Also eats some fruit.
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: N
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 22/ / 64
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: Breeding range extends from southern Yukon across Canada to Nova Scotia, and south to Baja California, Costa Rica, western Cuba, and the northern Bahamas. This species winters over much of United Sates, especially in the southern part.
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: Hammerson, G., and S. Cannings
Last Updated: Feb 01, 2010
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Ball, R. M., et al. 1988. Phylogeographic population structure of red-winged blackbirds assessed by mitochondrial DNA. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 85:1558-1562.
Bureau of Land Management. Life History Summaries.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I.McT.-Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G. Kaiser, A.C. Stewart, and M.C.E. McNall. 2001. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 4, Passerines: Wood-Warblers through Old World Sparrows. UBC Press, in cooperation with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv., and B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, Wildl. Branch and Resour. Inventory Branch, and Royal B.C. Mus. 744pp.
Clark, R. G., and P. J. Weatherhead. 1987. Influence of population size on habitat use by territorial male red-winged blackbirds in agricultural landscapes. Auk 104: 311-315.
Clark, R. G., et al. 1986. Numerical responses of red-winged blackbird populations to changes in regional land-use patterns. Can. J. Zool. 64:1944-1950.
Conover, M. R., and R. A. Dolbeer. 1989. Reflecting tapes fail to reduce blackbird damage to ripening cornfields. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 17:441-443.
Cummings, J. L., J. L. Guarino, and C. E. Knittle. 1989. Chronology of blackbird damage to sunflowers. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 17:50-52.
Dolbeer, R. A. 1980. Blackbirds and corn in Ohio. U.S. Fish and Wildl. Serv., Resource Publ. 136. 18 pp.
Dolbeer, R. A. 1990. Ornithology and integrated pest management: red-winged blackbirds AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS and corn. Ibis 132:309-322.
Dolbeer, R. A., et al. 1991. Efficacy of two gas cartridge formulations in killing woodchucks in burrows. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 19:200-204.
Dolbeer, R. A., P. P. Woronecki, and J. R. Mason. 1988. Aviary and field evaluations of sweet corn resistance to damage by blackbirds. J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci. 113:460-464.
Gavin, T. A., R. A. Howard, and B. May. 1991. Allozyme variation among breeding populations of red-winged blackbirds: the California conundrum. Auk 108:602-611.
Glahn, J. F., et al. 1991. Impact of roost control on local urban and agricultural blackbird problems. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 19:511-522.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Mah, J., and G. L. Nuechterlein. 1991. Feeding behavior of red-winged blackbirds on bird-resistant sunflowers. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 19:39-46.
Meanley, B. 1965. The roosting behavior of the red-winged blackbird in the southern United States. Wilson Bulletin 77:217-228.
Nelms, C. O., et al. 1994. Population estimates of breeding blackbirds in North Dakota, 1967, 1981-1982, and 1990. Am. Midl. Nat. 132:256-263.
Nero, R. W. 1984. Redwings. Smithsonian Institution Press, Blue Ridge Summit, PA. 160 pp.
Orians, G. H. 1961. The ecology of blackbird (AGELAIUS) social systems. Ecological Monographs 31:285-312.
Orians, G. H. 1980. Some adaptations of marsh-nesting blackbirds. Princeton Univ. Press. 295 pp.
Orians, G. H. 1985. Blackbirds of the Americas. Univ. Washington Press, Seattle.
Orians, G.H., Christman. 1968. Behavior of redwinged, tri-colored, and yellow headed blackbirds. Berkeley. 301 pp.
Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
Straub, R. W. 1989. Red-winged blackbird damage to sweet corn in relation to infestations of European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). J. Econ. Entomol. 82:1406-1410.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2010. Species Summary: Agelaius phoeniceus. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 10, 2026).