Red-winged Blackbird

On the 13th while watching the birds that come to my feeders I saw this  female.  It is a red-winged blackbird.  I have always been under the impression that the female looked just like the male, but that the color on the wings was much duller in color.

Boy have I been wrong.  The female does not look like the male one bit.

Maybe they have been here before, and I just did not know it.

She is pretty in her own right. The female builds the nest and has 2 or 3 broods per year.  The blackbird is the sure sign that Spring is coming.  They are the first to arrive.  The males return first and defend territories.  They will repeat their call from top of cattail while showing off their colorful wings. They build their nests over shallow water in thick stand of cattail. We have a lot of those by us.

This male was sitting on the sign by the entrance to where we live.

We have a lot of grassy land around the senior community where we live.