{"id":51046,"date":"2018-02-23T06:08:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T13:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=51046"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:42:04","slug":"spread-eagle-red-winged-blackbird-at-fort-de-soto-county-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/02\/23\/spread-eagle-red-winged-blackbird-at-fort-de-soto-county-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Spread-eagle Red-winged Blackbird at Fort De Soto County Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spread-eagleSpread-eagle Red-winged Blackbird male – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/500, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Lately I have been seeing people in several groups I belong to on Facebook getting excited because they are seeing Red-winged Blackbirds returning to areas close to where they live after having been absent for the winter.<\/p>\n

Some of the people see the blackbirds as harbingers of spring and I am excited for them.<\/p>\n

The last two places I have lived, in Florida and northern Utah, have Red-winged Blackbirds all year long so I don’t really see them as harbingers of spring but at this time of the year the songs and calls of the Red-winged Blackbirds in northern Utah do begin to change.<\/p>\n

I really enjoy hearing them singing.<\/p>\n

The numbers of blackbirds increase and I see them perched on the top of phrags, cattails, rushes more often.\u00a0 The marshes surrounding the Great Salt Lake must provide them with enough food to get them through even our harshest winters.<\/p>\n

The locations where I most often photograph Red-winged Blackbirds here in northern Utah include the marshes at Farmington Bay WMA and Bear River MBR, my local ponds and out on Antelope Island State Park.<\/p>\n

In Florida I most often photographed Red-winged Blackbirds at north beach of Fort De Soto County Park where I could reliably find them in the sand dunes, sea oats, spartina and mangroves all year long.<\/p>\n

I always thought it was wonderful when I could photograph the blackbirds and have the Gulf of Mexico in the background which is the case for the photo above.<\/p>\n

I photographed this male Red-winged Blackbird<\/span><\/a> as it perched spread eagle on a mangrove with the Gulf behind it not long after the sun had risen at the end of December in 2008.<\/p>\n

When I look at this photo I can almost hear the waves rushing to the shore along with the calls of all the other birds at the north beach along with the warm sand between my toes.<\/p>\n

Ahhhh.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Red-winged Blackbird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Florida I most often photographed Red-winged Blackbirds at north beach of Fort De Soto County Park where I could reliably find them in the sand dunes, sea oats, spartina and mangroves all year long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,419],"tags":[4004,4151,4039,3813,3483,5132,6214,4077,4062,3421,4324],"class_list":["post-51046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-red-winged-blackbirds","tag-adult","tag-agelaius-phoeniceus","tag-beach","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-coastal","tag-dunes","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-male","tag-mangrove","tag-red-winged-blackbird"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-blackbird-mangrove-mia-mcpherson-0508.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dhk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4574,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/02\/red-winged-blackbirds\/","url_meta":{"origin":51046,"position":0},"title":"Red-winged Blackbirds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Red-winged Blackbirds are birds that I associate with spring, the males begin calling perched on top of reeds, cattails, grasses and shrubs and flash their brightly colored coverts to attract a mate.","rel":"","context":"In "Florida"","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Red-winged Blackbird with nesting material, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-black-bird-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-5888.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-black-bird-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-5888.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-black-bird-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-5888.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-black-bird-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-5888.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10526,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/11\/15\/male-red-winged-blackbird-singing-on-a-mangrove\/","url_meta":{"origin":51046,"position":1},"title":"Male Red-winged Blackbird singing on a Mangrove","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't if this male was successful with the female Red-winged Blackbirds but he sure had me mesmerized with his sleek black feathers and his flashing red, orange and yellow epaulets.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Singing male Red-winged Blackbird in all his glory, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-winged-blackbird-male-singing-mia-mcpherson-4492.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-winged-blackbird-male-singing-mia-mcpherson-4492.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-winged-blackbird-male-singing-mia-mcpherson-4492.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-winged-blackbird-male-singing-mia-mcpherson-4492.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47290,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/06\/14\/female-red-winged-blackbirds-frequency-in-misidentification\/","url_meta":{"origin":51046,"position":2},"title":"Female Red-winged Blackbirds – Frequency in Misidentification","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Female Red-winged Blackbirds seem to be the birds that are most often misidentified probably because they look so different from the males. Red-winged Blackbirds are sexually dimorphic .","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Red-winged Blackbird near her nest at the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-winged-black-bird-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-5891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-winged-black-bird-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-5891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-winged-black-bird-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-5891.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/red-winged-black-bird-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-5891.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":121811,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/23\/urban-red-winged-blackbird-male-singing\/","url_meta":{"origin":51046,"position":3},"title":"Urban Red-winged Blackbird Male Singing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I dug way back into my files this morning to share this urban Red-winged Blackbird male singing. The date was February 23, 2014, the location was my local pond.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Urban Red-winged Blackbird male singing on a cattail, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-winged-blackbird-male-urban-songster-mia-mcpherson-0773.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-winged-blackbird-male-urban-songster-mia-mcpherson-0773.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-winged-blackbird-male-urban-songster-mia-mcpherson-0773.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-winged-blackbird-male-urban-songster-mia-mcpherson-0773.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1800,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/30\/bye-bye-blackbirds\/","url_meta":{"origin":51046,"position":4},"title":"Bye Bye Blackbirds? The USDA Is Killing Birds With DRC-1339","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently the USDA accepted responsibility for a smaller die off in South Dakota which brought to light a little known program called \"Bye bye Blackbird\" which uses DRC-1339, a poison that is also called an avicide.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Brewer's Blackbird displaying","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/brewers-blackbird-male-displaying-mia-mcpherson-3418.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7734,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/03\/02\/songs-of-spring-red-winged-blackbirds\/","url_meta":{"origin":51046,"position":5},"title":"Songs of Spring – Red-winged Blackbirds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Fairly soon I'll be seeing many more of the male Red-winged Blackbirds perching at the top of rushes and cattails singing springtime serenades for the females and flashing their brilliantly colored epaulets","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Red-winged Blackbird on a cattail at Bear River MBR, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-male-5855.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-male-5855.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/red-winged-blackbird-mia-mcpherson-male-5855.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}