Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Icterid paradise

A flock of red-winged blackbirds sparked a conversation on the Uptown Update blog recently. Approximately 150 red-wings appeared in Uptown in early April, according to the UU post. We’ve very rarely seen red-winged blackbirds on our block, but we did record our first of the season March 7 at Montrose Point (I also saw one at Calumet Park in January).

Several commenters noted that they had been attacked by red-wings. Attacks seem to happen quite frequently on the Chicago lakefront. (Time magazine covered this in 2008.) This is the time of year when nesting red-wings and grackles take over Montrose Point, posturing, puffing, posing and generally intimidating passersby.

3 comments:

Karla said...

Are these the same birds that attack runners? I know a runner who was attacked by birds when running by the lake in Chicago. This happened several years ago.

UptownRooster said...

Yes. I know that runner, too, and this post is in honor of him.

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