tags: red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, birds, Central Park, Image of the Day
Gerry or George IV.
Male Central Park red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger].
Bob Levy writes;
I believe there have been three successive male Red-winged Blackbirds holding the territory on the western half of Turtle Pond in Central Park since the main protagonist of my book Club George reigned there. I have given these males names. I call this one Gerry but the name "George" has become a kind of honorary title at the pond where visitors routinely call any male Red-winged Blackbird in sight George. So you could say this year's bird is George IV if one wishes to be precise. This fellow is also bold and charismatic but unlike George I, his interactions with humans are unpredictable and less frequent. In my sightings of him, he most often ignores me. On the day this photo was taken he had given me the cold shoulder then unexpectedly appeared at the dock emphatically "speaking" to me with a few short soft "chuck" calls that indicated he wanted a share of the peanuts he must have seen me hand out to Mama and Papa Castle, two Northern Cardinals of my acquaintance I have written about before. I got this shot by shifting the peanuts to my left hand and working the camera with my right.
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