San Diego Red-Wings Nesting in an Orange Grove
San Diego Red-wings Nesting in an Orange Grove
On the evening of March 15, 1925, a flock of about fifty San Diego Red-wings (Agelaius phoeniceus neutralis) settled in our orange grove near Buena Park, California, apparently to spend the night. The following morning they were still there.
The flock continued to frequent the grove, and on March 24 two males were trapped and banded. On March 28, with the traps open twelve hours, one male and eight females were banded. On this day the cover crop was turned under. The next morning the majority of the birds seemed to have left, although, as we discovered, a large proportion of the ninety trees in this area held nests in some stage of construction. Two nests seemed to be complete. On March 30, only seven pairs were counted. These remained and nested. The nests were located from five and one-half to eight feet from the ground and were among the smaller branches of the trees. They were built of green barley straws from an adjoining field and lined with fine rootlets or hair or both. There was no mud foundation in any of the nests examined. Each was woven in the same manner as when built in cat-tails.
The first eggs were laid April 1, and the first young were hatched April 17. The young of two nests hatched, one each successive day; but in the rest of the nests the eggs hatched during a single day or night, indicating that some females begin sitting with the first egg. There were six sets of three eggs and one of four.
As the season advanced the colony grew. On May 5, thirty nests with eggs or young were counted. Some of these possibly were second sets of the original seven. During the season, until July 15 when they had all departed, eight males, eleven females and twelve nestlings were banded from this colony. Five repeated.
James A. Calder
Buena Park, California, October 10, 1925
