Male of the Species: Red-winged Blackbird

March 6, 2013 — male, mating, red-winged blackbird

“The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, meaning males have many female mates – up to 15 in some cases. In some populations 90 percent of territorial males have more than one female nesting on their territories. But all is not as it seems: one-quarter to one-half of nestlings turn out to have been sired by someone other than the territorial male.” (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology)