Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Lowland Brush or Treed Bog)
   containing:
      Snags
   adjacent to: 
      Riparian

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Although a common migrant throughout Michigan, this species is the state's rarest breeding blackbird. Its breeding range is limited by its need for boreal habitats.

Habitat: Rusty Blackbirds breed in tree-bordered marshes, swampy woodlands and muskegs. Kennard (1920), in his extensive survey of this species in New England, found it particularly fond of snags in swamps and backwaters. He also found the Rusty Blackbird to be extremely site faithful, returning annually to a suitable territory. Territories are unusually large, with nests normally 0.8 km or more apart. Unlike many blackbird species, these birds are solitary nesters. Nests are usually in trees, either deciduous or coniferous, from 0.6 to 6.1 m above the ground. The nests are normally well built, bulky structures of twigs, the lichen Usnea, and sometimes dry grasses and are lined with "duff" or rotted vegetation. The nest is built on a foundation of Usnea.

Their diet is mainly insects and other small invertebrates, with fruit a minor constituent. The species appears to be rarely parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird.

Although Rusty Blackbirds are common migrants in Michigan, few remain in either summer or winter.

Habitat: Breeding: Wooded swamps, tree-bordered marshes, beaver ponds, muskegs, boreal bogs and stream borders with alder and willow thickets, wooded islands in lakes. Rarely seen in fields with other blackbirds. Wintering: Wooded Swamps.

Habitat: River groves, wooded swamps; muskeg in summer. Breeds in the muskeg region, in wet northern coniferous forest with many lakes and bogs. During migration and winter, favors areas with trees near water, as in wooded swamps and riverside forest; will also forage in open fields and cattle feedlots with other blackbirds.

Diet: Mostly insects and seeds. Majority of annual diet is insects, including many aquatic insects such as caddisflies, mayflies, dragonflies, and water beetles, plus land insects such as grasshoppers and others. Also eats snails, crustaceans, small fish, small salamanders. Eats many seeds and waste grain, especially in winter, also a few berries.

Nest: Site is in dense cover, usually in conifer or in shrubs above the water; placed very low, typically only a few feet above water or ground but can be up to 20 feet high in coniferous tree. Nest is a bulky open cup of twigs and grass, often with foundation of Usnea lichens, the inner bowl shaped of mud-like decaying plant material from the forest floor; lined with fine grass.