Bird’s On Fire

The birds featured on my post for today are the Red-winged Blackbirds. Good looking birds which have been frequent visitors in my backyard this year. I’ve seen more of them than previous years. Our temperatures are still over 90º F everyday with high humidity that makes it feel over 100º!

I’ve noticed that larger birds are more likely to endure more under this weather conditions. Red-winged Blackbird, Blue Jay, European Starlings, Common Grackles, Northern Mockingbird, Mourning Dove are some of them. The smaller birds rather venture open air sun exposure and wait for cooler moments when the sun is not directly above which is when the heat peaks or choose shady areas where heat is less.

It hasn’t rained for almost a week, no break from the intense heat, our lawns aren’t so bad because at early morning there’s a heavy dew, condensation of humidity over everything that looks like if it just rained.

Note: If you didn’t know, the male Red-winged Blackbird is very different than the female (sexual dimorphism).

10 thoughts on “Bird’s On Fire”

jmgoyder on July 15, 2015 at 9:08 am said:

Dimorphism?

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- avian101 on July 15, 2015 at 11:07 am said:
  
  “Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic differentiation between males and females of the same species. This differentiation happens in organisms who reproduce through sexual reproduction, with the prototypical example being for differences in characteristics of reproductive organs. Other possible examples are for secondary sex characteristics, body size, physical strength and morphology, ornamentation, behavior and other bodily traits. Traits such as ornamentation and breeding behavior found in one sex only implies that sexual selection over an extended period of time leads to sexual dimorphism.”
  
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susanpoozan on July 15, 2015 at 11:38 am said:

Sorry you have such horrid heat, hope it breaks soon. Lovely pictures of the male/female blackbirds and a useful explanation of why they are so different.

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- avian101 on July 15, 2015 at 12:22 pm said:
  
  On my post for Friday I explain a bit about our weather don’t let the title deceive you! 🙂 Thanks so much Susan!
  
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Lisa Rest on July 15, 2015 at 2:32 pm said:

I love the photo with the Mourning Doves! I forget: are Red-Winged Blackbirds the most numerous species now? 🙂

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- avian101 on July 15, 2015 at 3:09 pm said:
  
  Yes, I believe so. Thanks Lisa! 🙂
  
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tootlepedal on July 15, 2015 at 4:09 pm said:

That’s far too hot for me.

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- avian101 on July 15, 2015 at 4:16 pm said:
  
  I think it’s too hot for anyone! 🙂
  
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Tiny on July 16, 2015 at 11:56 pm said:

Thanks for this education, H.J.! Now I know I’ve seen the females as well! And you can have some of our rain 🙂

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- avian101 on July 17, 2015 at 11:54 am said:
  
  Thank you Tiny! Seems like we had some of your rain but all at once! 🙂
  
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