{"id":7734,"date":"2013-03-02T04:39:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T11:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7734"},"modified":"2025-10-30T10:44:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:44:38","slug":"songs-of-spring-red-winged-blackbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/03\/02\/songs-of-spring-red-winged-blackbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs of Spring – Red-winged Blackbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Red-winged Blackbird on a cattail at Bear River MBR – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday while taking the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I heard a Red-winged Blackbird loudly singing the songs of spring.<\/p>\n

The light was terrible yesterday so I looked around in my files for a male Red-winged Blackbird to share this morning and came across this one taken at Bear River MBR a few years ago.<\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned before that black birds are difficult to expose properly and that often times I need to use exposure compensation to make sure the blacks aren’t too dark or they won’t show fine detail.<\/p>\n

When I took this image the light was just right and I didn’t need to adjust my exposure to get it right. I love it when that happens!<\/p>\n

Fairly soon I’ll be seeing many more of the male Red-winged Blackbirds<\/span><\/a> perching at the top of rushes and cattails singing\u00a0springtime serenades for the females and flashing their brilliantly colored epaulets!<\/p>\n

For black birds they are kind of flashy.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,419,26],"tags":[4004,4151,3813,3483,4366,4062,4094,4324,4092,4179,5050,165,4095],"class_list":["post-7734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-red-winged-blackbirds","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-agelaius-phoeniceus","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-cattails","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-red-winged-blackbird","tag-refuge","tag-singing-2","tag-songs","tag-spring","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t