Winter Travelers

Rusty Blackbirds are one of the fastest declining species in North America. In the same family as orioles, red-winged blackbirds, and grackles, it has lost between 85 and 99 percent of its population over the last 40 years. This past weekend, we saw two pairs of Rusties in our neighborhood in St. Louis county. 

 One of the pairs (male on the left, female on the right.) Their buffy-colored eyebrow and the rusty ends of their feathers distinguish them from other small blackbirds.

Both pairs together.

Rusty Blackbirds typically forage in bottomland forests with standing water. They flip over leaves, looking for small arthropods. They arrived shortly after a rainstorm and after my dad had blown the leaves into piles, so the yard must have looked like a good place to eat. Traditionally, they winter in the bottomlands of the American South and breed in boreal forests in the Northeast U.S. and Canada. Both habitats have suffered serious damage in the past century.

They were following a group of European Starlings. Migratory birds, especially blackbirds and starlings, often form mixed flocks for protection from predators. There's also evidence that Rusties, which have smaller beaks than grackles, follow other blackbird species around and pick up the scraps from nuts that the larger birds have cracked open. 

It was truly special to see the Rusties so close to my home. It's a species that I have learned much about: my research adviser at Truman surveyed the birds in their wintering grounds and is an expert on their ecology. But their existence was somewhat theoretical until I saw them through my front door. It was fascinating to realize that they were only midway on their journey to Arkansas or Mississippi. Reflecting on how a small songbird carries itself thousands of miles every year is always a source of wonder for me.