During Sunday's Salmon River CBC in southwestern Colchester, we observed interesting red-winged blackbird feeding behavior. About 15 RWBs were creating a noisy ruckus at the top of a 60-70-ft-tall white pine (next to a residence on Evergreen Road near a pond/marsh) that was laden with pinecones, as many are around here this fall. They were ripping them up and apparently feeding (what else?). Pieces of the cones were raining down until they had nearly stripped the cones from the top of the tree (many other cones lower down were untouched, presumably empty?). That was a behavior I had never seen or expected to. Harold Moritz East Haddam

Hi Harold, Nice observation. I have seen RW Blackbirds feed on the seeds of pine cones several times over the years. When I first saw that behavior, I was as surprised as you. They are opportunistic omnivores! Frank Mantlik Stratford Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 18, 2023, at 10:54 AM, Harold Moritz and Sheila Gleason via CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > > During Sunday's Salmon River CBC in southwestern Colchester, we observed interesting red-winged blackbird feeding behavior. About 15 RWBs were creating a noisy ruckus at the top of a 60-70-ft-tall white pine (next to a residence on Evergreen Road near a pond/marsh) that was laden with pinecones, as many are around here this fall. They were ripping them up and apparently feeding (what else?). Pieces of the cones were raining down until they had nearly stripped the cones from the top of the tree (many other cones lower down were untouched, presumably empty?). That was a behavior I had never seen or expected to. > Harold Moritz > East Haddam > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email with just "join" or "leave" in the subject or body to: ctbirds-request@lists.ctbirding.org > > CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing birders together statewide. Please support COA: https://www.ctbirding.org/join-us/ > > CTBirds is for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For list rules and subscription information visit: https://www.ctbirding.org/birds-birding/ct-birds-email-list/