(_Scolecophagus carolinus_) Blackbird family
_Called also_: THRUSH BLACKBIRD; RUSTY GRACKLE; RUSTY ORIOLE;
RUSTY CROW; BLACKBIRD
_Length_--9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin.
_Male_--In full plumage, glossy black with metallic
reflections, intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more
pronounced as the season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes.
_Female_--Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray.
Light line over eye. Smaller than male.
_Range_--North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico
and westward to the Plains.
_Migrations_--April. November. A few winter north.
A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller
flocks, the rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other
feathered friends in marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by
its rusty feathers and pale yellow eye, and easily distinguish the
rusty-gray female from the female red-wing that is conspicuously
streaked.
In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish,
secluded streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water
or brookside plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times
they often indulge in a curious spluttering, squeaking, musical
concert that one listens to with pleasure. The breeding range is
mostly north of the United States. But little seems to be known of the
birds' habits in their northern home.
Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those
inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds which are so
frequently called precisely what they are not. In spite of the
compliment implied in associating the name of one of our finest
songsters with it, the rusty blackbird has a clucking call as
unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very rarely in the spring does
it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of the redwing's.