Red-Winged Black Bird
by Elizabeth Winter
Title
Red-Winged Black Bird
Artist
Elizabeth Winter
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
red-winged black bird, plant, green, nature, wildlife, bird,
The first known painting of a red-winged blackbird was published by Mark Catesby in 1754. Carolus Linnaeus, the famous Swedish scientist who invented scientific names, gave the red-winged blackbird its scientific name in 1766, based on Catesby's painting
Red-winged blackbirds belong to the family Icteridae, which includes bobolinks, meadowlarks, orioles, cowbirds, grackles, and other blackbirds. "Ikteros" means "jaundice" (a liver disease making people's skin turn yellowish) in Greek, and many of the birds in this family are yellow.
Some people call American blackbirds "troupials," which comes from the French word "troupe" for their habit of flocking.
American blackbirds are not related to European blackbirds. In "Sing a Song of Sixpence," the "four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" were English blackbirds, closely related to our American robin! In the days when people ate songbirds, red-winged blackbirds didn't taste as good as robins, because robins and other thrushes, like the English blackbird, eat more fruit. People really did used to bake songbirds in pies, but the Migratory Bird Treaty Act made that illegal in 1918.
Uploaded
February 19th, 2016
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Viewed 648 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 04/16/2024 at 12:06 AM
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Comments (45)
Carol Deltoro
In my part of the country this is the true herald of spring. Love the touch of pink- red in the leaves and the birds wingbar
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