juvenile red-winged blackbird - hasn't grown into is epaulets yet.

Left:  mature breeding male red-winged blackbird.  Right - non-breeding male, possibly juvenile.

I decided this year to get out as many times as possible in the spring to photograph all the nesting, brooding, and fledging behaviours that I could.  I did not find that many nests, but I did come across quite a few juveniles in various stages of development.  Identifying can be tricky as the young often don't share plumage colouration with adults.  When they do, they look like the female or sometimes a non-breeding male.  

The dark feathering of the bird suggested a blackbird of some species and I wondered for a bit if maybe it was a rusty blackbird.  However, once I spotted the underdeveloped epaulets, I was pretty sure of the species.  I photographed this on June 18th of this year.  The eggs were probably laid a little more than a month ago in late April or early May.  The eggs are incubated for up to two weeks, where the young chicks are then tended by both parents.  The chicks don't fledge for another two weeks or so and then are cared for by the parents for another two weeks.  All tolled, these juveniles are somewhere between five or six weeks old before they begin to fend for themselves.

It is possible that the bird is not a juvenile but simply a non-breeding male.  They don't usually breed until the second year of life, so there is a good part of me that thinks this must be a youngster.  I think it is unlikely that it is a 2-year old bird that failed to develop breeding plumage and behaviours.  Just a thought.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com