Males return first, often before any open water is available, but females bide their time farther south until the weather and food supplies are more steady. Male and female red-wings look completely different. Weber Female Red-winged Blackbird Photo Courtesy Jim Stasz Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter. Changing Meal Plans Red-winged Blackbirds have been spending the winter eating mostly plants. But the moment they settle into their marshy breeding grounds, they'll switch their diet to mostly animals, because that is exactly when insects will suddenly become available.
Female redwings wait until warmer, more predictable weather makes insects more reliably available.
They need a LOT of bugs to give them the protein and calcium necessary to lay eggs. Redwings start breeding earlier in southern marshes than in northern ones, except for a small population breeding all the way down in Central America. But Not Heard When little baby Wood Ducks are still inside their eggs, the babies talk to one another, making tiny peeping sounds. But redwing babies are absolutely silent inside their eggs. The only sound that you can hear with a stethoscope is a tiny scratching sound as the babies are pipping.