When the hylas begin to pipe in the spring, they are joined by the musical Redwings. The voices of these birds have been likened to flutes, also to violincellos in an orchestra. Their song is pleasant to hear, but seems to require considerable effort on the part of the performers—they lift their shoulders and spread their tails into broad fans when singing.

Redwings are noisy chatterers; they are intensely social in their nature. It is thought that some males have several wives at a time—one marvels at their courage! During the winter the females flock by themselves, and in the spring migrate about two weeks after their venturesome, prospective husbands have come northward. When they arrive, there is great “Confusion of Tongues”—the marsh is transformed into a Babel. Then sites for homes are selected, and house-building begins in earnest. Blackbirds make devoted parents.

They are much more popular than their cousins, the grackles, though in some localities where they are very abundant, as in the Upper Mississippi Valley, they are in disfavor because of the grain they devour. They eat oats, corn, and wheat, but only one-third as much as do the grackles; they eat the seeds of smartweed and barnyard grass in preference. Grasshoppers they consider great delicacies, also many other harmful insects.[64] Professor Beal states that nearly seven-eighths of their food consists of weed seed and insects injurious to agriculture. He pleads for their protection as does Mr. Forbush, who says: “Should there be an outbreak of cankerworms in an orchard, the blackbirds will fly at least half a mile to get them for their young.”[65] They eat little fruit and do slight harm to garden or orchard. On the whole, they are beneficial to mankind.

The RUSTY BLACKBIRD and the YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD are two other species of blackbirds.

The RUSTY BLACKBIRD resembles both the purple grackle and the redwing. It is more nearly uniformly glossy black in summer than the former; it is rusty in winter like the latter. It is about the size of the redwing and has a sweeter voice. It is sometimes mistaken for the grackle; but its smaller size, its shorter, rounder tail, and more musical voice differentiate it.

The YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, our western species, is easy to identify because of his yellow head, neck, throat, and breast, and his black body, with white wing-patches. The female has a paler yellow head, which, with the breast, is marked with white.

The Yellowhead lives in swamps of the Mississippi Valley from Indiana westward to California. He is attractive to see, but not pleasant to hear. He, too, is a grain-thief and therefore unpopular.