Listen to the Red-winged blackbird
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
About the Red-winged blackbird
The Red-winged blackbird is a bird in the family Icteridae (order Passeriformes). Its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is “least concern”.
What does the Red-winged blackbird sound like?
Birds produce sound with the syrinx, a vocal organ deep in the chest that can make two independent sounds at once. Songs tend to be long and patterned and are used to hold territory and attract a mate; calls are short signals for contact, alarm and flight.
The recordings here are labelled as song, alarm call and call. Listen for differences in rhythm, pitch and repetition – the spectrum display makes it easy to see whether a sound is a pure whistle (a thin line), a harsh call (a broad band) or a trill (rapid repeated marks).
From Wikipedia
The red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and northwestern Costa Rica. It may winter as far north as Pennsylvania and British Columbia, but northern populations are generally migratory, moving south to Mexico and the Southern United States.
More from the family Icteridae
Brown-headed cowbird
Molothrus ater
Baltimore oriole
Icterus galbula
Venezuelan troupial
Icterus icterus
Common grackle
Quiscalus quiscula
Great-tailed grackle
Quiscalus mexicanus
Shiny cowbird
Molothrus bonariensis
Yellow-headed blackbird
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus
Yellow-rumped cacique
Cacicus cela
Eastern meadowlark
Sturnella magna
Giant cowbird
Molothrus oryzivorus
Crested oropendola
Psarocolius decumanus
Yellow-billed cacique
Amblycercus holosericeus
Frequently asked questions
What does a Red-winged blackbird sound like?
You can hear 7 recordings of the Red-winged blackbird on this page, including its song, alarm call and call. Birds produce sound with the syrinx, a vocal organ deep in the chest that can make two independent sounds at once.
Is the Red-winged blackbird endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the Red-winged blackbird as “least concern”.
What family does the Red-winged blackbird belong to?
The Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) belongs to the family Icteridae in the order Passeriformes.
Sources & credits
- Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
- Song · Sea Ranch, Sonoma County, California, United States by radrat – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Alarm call · Dordt College Prairie, Sioux, Iowa, United States by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Song · Wood Lake, Richfield, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Call · Wood Lake, Richfield, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Song · San Francisco Peninsula (near San Francisco), San… by radrat – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Red-Winged Blackbird – Yellowstone National Park by NPS & MSU Acoustic Atlas / Jennifer Jerrett – Public domain (NPS) · NPS
- Wikidata Q754043 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Red-winged blackbird – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo by Walter Siegmund (talk) – CC BY-SA 3.0