Birdland: A Welcome Sight

Red-winged Blackbirds are one of the earliest birds to migrate back to cold-weather climates in the springtime. Males are a distinctive all-black, with bright red shoulders and yellow wing bars (the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes they can puff up or hide them “depending on how confident they feel.”) The females are more subdued-looking, with streaky brown patterns. This male Red-winged Blackbird was photographed at Garland Park south of Park Hill by Mark Silverstein.