Monday, April 5, 2010

Uptown Going To The Birds

A reader writes:  "Only over the past 3 years we have been getting Red-winged Blackbirds in our area. We never had them before and today I have about 150 around my block. They make such a nice sound. Check it out and open your windows."

13 comments:

  1. I recall seeing them around Winthrop and Berwyn in the early 1990's. Good to see their numbers growing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The song of a Red Winged Blackbird is second only to the song of a Wren who is looking for a mate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Red-winged blackbirds are a nuisance

    http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1817833,00.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. If we were any other species, we would figure out how to defend against them and/or hide from them, but we are human and so we simply swear at them and hope they go away.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those birds are super territorial. Be very careful around them. I've had one of them literally fly beak first, straight into the back of my head. It was not a bit of fun. I have to agree with Andrew.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Who knew...I thought they were rural birds stopping over in the city. I never thought they were taking over!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shinobi-wan, and Andrew are spot on! When I was a kid out in the burbs, I used to ride my bike thru a new development that had a few RWBB nests it in. Those birds would literally attack if they spotted you too close to their turf. I was hit many times, no real damage, but not fun, and who knows what type of disease you could get from them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you get four and twenty of these they make a lovely pie!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I remember seeing them quite frequently in a rural area near Joliet. As I recall they like to weave basket-like nests among tall reeds. Are there really enough wild prairie grasses in the vacant lots of Uptown to support this kind of nest?

    P.S. What happened to the cardinals? I haven't heard their songs so much this year.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They love all of the native plants around the Montrose bird sanctuary. I've seen Cardinals and Wood Peckers, but the crows that patrol my block chase them away...

    ReplyDelete
  11. If they dive bomb you, they are defending their young. You've gotta give them a hand for being good parents, actually. I love Red Wing Blackbirds. Now - CROWS, that's quite another story.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wonderful.

    Not only do we need to worry about gang bangers firing randomly into crowds, car thieves driving down sidewalks trying to escape the clutches of the police,Jehovah's Witnesses buzzing us early on a Saturday morning, and elected officials treating tax money like penny candy, but now freaking birds.

    Somewhere Alfred Hitchcock is happy.

    Perhaps it is time to move to Lincoln Park!

    NAH.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Irish - How about pulling up your North Side stakes entirely and going to Hyde Park, home of the (in)famous parrots?

    You'll soon miss the sweet sounds of the Ravenswood Ravens in the morning!

    ReplyDelete