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Rusty Blackbirds – How Does Pennsylvania Fit In?

April 1, 2009
Rusty Blackbirds – How Does Pennsylvania Fit In?

Singing Rusty Blackbird by David Shaw, (www.wildimagephoto.com).

This  enigmatic and now charismatic boreal icterid is finally getting some attention in the state. First, Rusty Blackbird experts held a meeting in Pennsylvania last fall. Second, there was a “blitz” of its winter populations. That’s a good start. Now, let’s find out how our state really fits into the natural history or conservation of Rusty Blackbird.

            Pennsylvania’s great potential role in conservation of the declining Rusty Blackbird is as a migration stopover. This state is right on the main migration highway from the Dixie states where it winters to the boreal wetlands where it nests.  Thousands of them go through Pennsylvania and a few of the Great Lakes states, especially in wetlands and wet woods.  Our green waterways and wetlands may be critical stops on its  migration route.  This includes several places designated as Important Bird Areas. It may not seem at first obvious, but the fate of this obscure songbird is linked by habitat to waterfowl such as Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers as well as wetland birds like Prothonotary Warbler, American Woodcock, and American Bittern.  The slender thread of wetland and riparian forest habitat holds them together.

 

By number, the big wetlands of the state’s northwestern counties may be most critical for this species as it is for many of our breeding wetland birds.  The wetlands called Geneva, Pymatuning, Conneaut may be important stopover sites for Rusty Blackbirds on a national level.  These are Important Bird Areas werelisted as such not only for their rare breeding marsh birds, but also because they are important for places for migrating birds to feed and rest. More data collected at these and other wetlands and riparian areas would help us better understand where Rusty Blackbirds migrate through our state and in what kinds of numbers.  They also would give us more insight on the value of these wetlands.

 

            There is much more to the Rusty Blackbird story and we are only in the beginning stages of finding out more about this species.  They have declined dramatically in the last decade, but apparently this decline has been uneven.   Declines have been much greater in the eastern part of its nesting range than in the west -- places like New England and the Canadian Maritimes.  We have not tracked this migration bird by bird, but drawing a few lines on the map is instructive.  Those east coast Rusty Blackbirds surely travel up and down the eastern seaboard.  They belong to the Atlantic Flyway like so many waterfowl and shorebirds.  Many probably travel down through the Delaware River valley and the Susquehanna watersheds.  The scattered and beleaguered wetlands and riparian woods of eastern Pennsylvania and adjacent New Jersey may be critical for this declining Rusty Blackbird population, which could spiral out of control without some kind of course adjustment.   This area is on the path from the Maritimes down to the Southeast swamps.  So, even if there are fewer Rusty Blackbirds  there, the smaller wetlands of the Eastern counties might actually be more critical to the future of the species.  Keep tuned in and keep those records coming in.  The data collected at Rusty Blackbird hotspots also will inform conservationists about the wetlands and forest bird populations of each location. 

 

For more information on Rusty Blackbird please see:   http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Research/Rusty_Blackbird/

 

For more information about Pennsylvania’s Game Lands, visit the Game Commission website and for more information about Important Bird Areas visit the Pennsylvania Audubon website.