The males get back first to claim and hold prime nesting sites. The females and last year's young make a more leisurely trip back but they aren't too far behind. Dr. Zink's Intro to Ornithology class at our own University of Minnesota has used study of RWBB migration as a student project. (My daughter took the class a few years ago and I went out to Richfield's Wood Lake Nature Center with her to observe the birds weekly during spring semester.) This common bird is quite interesting to study. As I recall, the eggs laid by the female of a pair will often show that she has been associating with the males of neighboring territories when genetic studies are done.
Jeanne Tanamachi Lauderdale MN -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Todd Merefield <[email protected]> > > I am curious if anyone knows why I do not see any female Red-Winged > Blackbirds. > I have dozens of males mixed with Common Grackles in my backyard. Is it > possible the females have not migrated north yet? Or are they already > incubating eggs perhaps? I am in Anoka County. > _________________________________________________________________ > Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger. > http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Ref > resh_messenger_video_042008 -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Todd Merefield <[email protected]> Subject: [mou] Where are the female Red-Winged Blackbirds? Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:27:45 +0000 Size: 2503 Url: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080414/9a8ae1cd/attachment.mht
