Rusty Blackbird Gardens for North America’s Rusty Blackbirds

Summary: Rusty blackbird gardens in Canada and the United States account for North America’s rusty blackbirds bouncing back from population declines of 90 percent.

Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) favor eastern North America's wooded wetlands as winter habitat; rusty blackbird on log perch in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Iowa's Missouri Valley: Dave Menke, Public Domain, via US Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library

North America’s rusty blackbirds still are going to need planned and wild rusty blackbird gardens in Canada and the United States even though the last of three rusty blackbird blitzes is over.

Organizers of blitzes in 2014, 2015 and 2016 base the annual event’s late winter to early spring occurrence upon concerns over apparently declining rusty blackbird populations. Birds of North America by François Vuilleumier, the American Museum of Natural History’s editor-in-chief, calls rusty blackbirds “perhaps the least studied of all North American blackbirds.”

Edward Brinkley, author of Field Guide to Birds of North America, describes rusty blackbird populations as having “declined by as much as 90%” since the 1960s.

Organizers and participants expect recent rises in rusty blackbird population levels to continue if habitat can be created and protected throughout Canada and the United States.

Continental Alaska and Canada as far north as the timberline furnish bogs, coniferous forests and deciduous woodlands where rusty blackbirds breed and mature spring and summer.

North Americans along all of the Atlantic and Central, and part of the Mississippi and Pacific, migration routes get to see fall and spring-migrating rusty blackbirds. The eastern half of the United States has wooded wetlands where rusty blackbirds enjoy wintering 2,500 to 5,000 feet (762 to 1,524 meters) above sea level. Rusty blackbirds include among favorite woody plants cattail-entangled deciduous bushes, shrubs and thickets, such as alders and willows; conifers; and evergreens such as balsams and spruces.

Berries, grains and seeds join fish, insects, snails, spiders and tadpoles as food sources rusty blackbird gardens in boreal bogs, sphagnum-dominated muskegs and wooded wetlands offer.

John V. Dennis, author of A Complete Guide to Bird Feeding, knows of rusty blackbirds as ground-foraging scratch-feeders of cracked corn, millet, safflower, sorghum and sunflower.

Rusty blackbirds, as songbirds whose life cycles and natural histories are solitary except when flocking with other migratory blackbirds, leave feeding stations and tray posts alone.

Planned and wild rusty blackbird gardens must prioritize non-woody and woody canopies 2 to 20 feet (0.61 to 6.09 meters) above ground for rusty blackbird shelters. Rusty blackbirds need one-half-mile (0.81-kilometer) territories for nesting in grass-, leaf-, lichen-, twig-built, 7-inch (17.78-centimeter) by 5.5-inch (13.97-centimeter) cups with 3-inch (7.62-centimeter) linings and for sheltering. They offer four to five blue-green, brown grey-blotched, oval, semi-glossy, smooth-shelled, 25.8-millimeter (1.02-inch) by 18.6-millimeter (.073-inch) eggs 14 days to hatch in each year’s new-built nests.

Fourteen days pass before nestlings leave as juveniles whose brown eyes yellow in time for October migrations and whose rust-tipped dark colors look like wintering adults.

Spring and summer breeding months in planned and wild rusty blackbird gardens qualify females for slate black looks and males for green-glossed black bills, legs and plumage. Non-breeding females retain lighter rust-brown undersides and showcase grey-brown eyebrows while non-breeding males seem darker, rustier, with black masks between bills and eyes and paler eyebrows. The harsh calls of migratory females and males sound very much like the Chuk! of wood frogs while males sing Too-ta-lee! as rising, sweetly musical squeaks.

It takes awhile to recognize rusty blackbirds behind their Brewer’s blackbird-like appearances, grackle-like courting, sandpiper-like feeding and thrush-like flights, but it is always worth the effort.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed rusty blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) as vulnerable since 2007: Extinction Symbol @extinctsymbol via Twitter March 22, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

rusty blackbird: Dave Menke, Public Domain, via US Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library @ http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/13043/rec/4

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed rusty blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) as vulnerable since 2007: Extinction Symbol @extinctsymbol via Twitter March 22, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/extinctsymbol/status/712419782193242113

For further information:

Dennis, John V. September 2002. A Complete Guide to Bird Feeding. Edison NJ: Castle Books.

Extinction Symbol @extinctsymbol. 22 March 2016. "Rusty blackbird: The global population has declined by about 95 percent since the 1960s." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/extinctsymbol/status/712419782193242113

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 February 2016. "2016 Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz Begins March 1." Earth and Space News. Monday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/02/2016-rusty-blackbird-spring-migration.html

Vuilleumier, François. 16 February 2009. Birds of North America. New York NY: DK Publishing for American Museum of Natural History.