October 22, 1999

     Blackbirds

This week, beginning about 7:30 each morning and continuing for more than five minutes, several thousand blackbirds will fly in a narrow band over our yard.  They come from a wetland in our rural home area where they spend their fall season nights.  Then, between 5:45 and 6:00 each afternoon, the stream of blackbirds moves back to its roost.  This is a sight seen in many areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Soon after the adults stop caring for the young, blackbirds begin to flock together.  Each night in summer and fall, until they move farther south in late October and early November, congregations of common grackles, red-winged blackbirds and brown-headed cowbirds -- all members of the blackbird family -- fly from their feeding grounds to their roosts.  They create the largest and most commonly observed groups of land birds in North America.