Red-winged Blackbird
(Agelaius phoeniceus)

Overview

Summary

© Chuck Kling
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The Red-winged Blackbird is one of North America's most abundant birds. It inhabits marshes and upland habitats in Canada from the east to the west coast and from the south up to the northern treeline. The Breeding Bird Survey indicates that the population in Canada has shown a steady decrease between 1970 and the most recent decade. However, in the last 10 years, the population has shown a slight increase, though it remains well below 1970s levels.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Often considered a pest of croplands and a safety threat to the airline industry, this and other members of the blackbird family have been the target of control programs, which now constitute one of the major sources of mortality for the species (Yasukawa and Searcy 1995). Population declines are also likely influenced by lower precipitation and conversion of wetland breeding habitat to tilled land (Yasukawa and Searcy 1995).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Yasukawa, K. and W.A. Searcy. 1995. Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Yasukawa, K. and W.A. Searcy. 1995. Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)