Red-winged Blackbird, female
Agelaius phoeniceus
Red-winged Blackbird · Prospect Park · 14 December 2025
A female Red-winged Blackbird working a sweetgum seed ball under a crust of snow in Prospect Park in December. Red-wings are marsh birds across the whole continent, and most leave New York for the winter; this one is staying, on seed.
Female Red-winged Blackbirds look nothing like the glossy black, red-shouldered male: heavily streaked brown and buff, closer in pattern to a large sparrow, which leads to more than a few misidentifications every winter. The species is among the most abundant land birds in North America, and one of the earliest to return and sing on territory each spring.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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