Every passage below is reprinted word for word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers’ Bulletin 630, Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer — the blackbird accounts of the 1915 printing, followed by the paragraphs the 1926 revision rewrote as sweet-corn complaints mounted — cited in full at the end.

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The grackle — 2,346 stomachs

From the 1915 printing. — The crow blackbird or grackle in one or more of its subspecies is a familiar object in all the States east of the Rocky Mountains. Throughout the year it is resident as far north as southern Illinois, and in summer extends its range into the Canadian Provinces. In the Mississippi Valley it is one of the most abundant of birds, preferring to nest in the artificial groves and windbreaks near farms instead of in the natural “timber” which it formerly used.

It breeds also in parks and near buildings, often in considerable colonies. Farther east, in New England, it is only locally abundant, though frequently seen in migration. In the latter days of August and throughout September it is found in immense numbers before moving southward.

The grackle is accused of many sins, such as stealing grain and fruit and robbing the nests of other birds. An examination of 2,346 stomachs shows that nearly one-third of its food consists of insects, most of which are injurious. The bird also eats a few snails, crawfishes, salamanders, small fish, and occasionally a mouse.

The stomach contents do not indicate that it robs other birds’ nests to any great extent, as remains of birds and birds’ eggs amount to less than half of 1 per cent.

It is on account of its vegetable food that the grackle most deserves condemnation. Grain is eaten during the whole year, and only for a short time in summer is other food attractive enough to induce the bird to alter its diet. The grain taken in winter and spring probably consists of waste kernels from the stubble.

The stomachs do not indicate that the bird pulls sprouting grain; but the wheat eaten in July and August and the corn eaten in fall are probably from fields of standing grain. The total amount of grain consumed during the year constitutes 45 per cent of the food, but it is safe to say that at least half is waste grain and consequently of no value.

Although the crow blackbird eats a few cherries and blackberries in their season, and in the fall some wild fruit, it apparently does no damage in this way.

Large flocks of grackles no doubt do considerable injury to grain crops, and there seems to be no remedy, except the destruction of the birds, which is in itself expensive. During the breeding season, however, the species does much good by eating insects and by feeding them to its young, which are reared almost entirely upon this food.

The bird does the greatest amount of good in spring, when it follows the plow in search of large grubworms, of which it is so fond that it sometimes literally crams its stomach full of them.

The grackle is accused of many sins, such as stealing grain and fruit and robbing the nests of other birds.

The Brewer blackbird, out West — 312 stomachs

The Brewer blackbird takes the place in the Western States of the grackle, or crow blackbird, which lives in the Mississippi Valley and farther east and is very similar in appearance and habits. It breeds east to the Great Plains and north into Canada, and winters over most of its breeding range in the United States and south to Guatemala.

At home in fields, meadows, and orchards, and about ranch buildings and cultivated lands generally, it nests in bushes and weeds, sometimes in trees, and is very gregarious, especially about barnyards and corrals. The bird feeds freely in stockyards and in cultivated fields, and when fruit is ripe does not hesitate to take a share.

During the cherry season in California the birds are much in the orchards. In one case they were observed feeding on cherries, but when a neighboring fruit grower began to plow his orchard almost every blackbird in the vicinity was upon the newly opened ground close after the plowman’s heels in its eagerness to secure the insects turned up.

The laboratory investigation of this bird’s food covered 312 stomachs, collected in every month and representing especially the fruit and grain sections of southern California. The animal portion of the food was 32 per cent and the vegetable 68 per cent.

Caterpillars and their pupæ amounted to 12 per cent of the whole food and were eaten every month. They include many of those pests known as cutworms. The cotton-boll worm, or corn-ear worm, was identified in at least 10 stomachs, and in 11 were found pupæ of the codling moth. The animal food also included other insects, and spiders, sow bugs, snails, and eggshells.

The vegetable food may be divided into fruit, grain, and weed seeds. Fruit was eaten in May, June, and July, not a trace appearing in any other month, and was composed of cherries, or what was thought to be such, strawberries, blackberries or raspberries, and fruit pulp or skins not further identified. However, the amount, a little more than 4 per cent for the year, was too small to make a bad showing, and if the bird does no greater harm than is involved in its fruit eating it is well worth protecting.

Grain amounts to 54 per cent of the yearly food and forms a considerable percentage in each month; oats are the favorite and were the sole contents of 14 stomachs, and wheat of 2, but no stomach was completely filled with any other grain. Weed seeds, eaten in every month to the extent of 9 per cent of the food, were found in rather small quantities and irregularly, and appear to have been merely a makeshift.

Stomachs of nestlings, varying in age from 24 hours to some that were nearly fledged, were found to contain 89 per cent animal to 11 per cent vegetable matter. The largest items in the former were caterpillars, grasshoppers, and spiders. In the latter the largest items were fruit, probably cherries; grain, mostly oats; and rubbish.

The red-wing — 1,083 stomachs

The red-winged or swamp blackbird in its various forms is found all over the United States and the region immediately to the north. While common in most of its range, its distribution is more or less local, mainly on account of its partiality for marshes. It builds its nest over or near standing water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes.

Owing to this peculiarity the bird may be absent from large tracts of country which afford no swamps or marshes suitable for nesting. It usually breeds in large colonies, though single families, consisting of a male and several females, may sometimes be found in a small slough, where each female builds her nest and rears her own little brood, while her liege lord displays his brilliant colors and struts in the sunshine.

In the upper Mississippi Valley the species finds most favorable conditions, for the countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the numerous shallow lakes afford nesting sites for thousands of red-wings; and here are bred the immense flocks which sometimes do so much damage to the grain fields of the West. After the breeding season the birds congregate preparatory to migration, and remain thus associated throughout the winter.

Three species and several subspecies of red-wings are recognized, but practically no difference exists in the habits of these forms either in nesting or feeding, except such as may result from local conditions. Most of the forms are found on the Pacific side of the continent, and may be considered as included in the following statements as to food and economic status.

Many complaints have been made against the red-wing, and several States have at times placed a bounty upon its head. It is said to cause great damage to grain in the West, especially in the upper Mississippi Valley, but no complaints come from the northeastern section, where the bird is much less abundant than in the West and South.

Examination of 1,083 stomachs showed that vegetable matter forms 74 per cent of the food, while animal matter, mainly insects, forms but 20 per cent. A little more than 10 per cent consists of beetles, mostly harmful species. Weevils, or snout beetles, amount to 4 per cent of the year’s food, but in June reach 25 per cent.

As weevils are among the most harmful insects known, their destruction should condone some, at least, of the sins of which the bird is accused. Grasshoppers constitute nearly 5 per cent of the food, while the rest of the animal matter is made up of various insects, a few snails, and crustaceans. The few dragon flies found were probably picked up dead, for they are too active to be taken alive, unless by a bird of the flycatcher family. So far as the insect food as a whole is concerned, the red-wing may be considered entirely beneficial.

The 1915 verdict: the bird should be protected

From the 1915 printing. — The interest in the vegetable food of this bird centers around grain. Only three kinds, corn, wheat, and oats, were found in the stomachs in appreciable quantities. They aggregate but little more than 13 per cent of the whole food, oats forming nearly half of this amount. In view of the many complaints that the red-wing eats grain, this record is surprisingly small.

The purple grackle has been found to eat more than three times as much. In the case of the crow, corn forms one-third of the food, so that the red-winged blackbird, whose diet is made up of only a trifle more than one-eighth of grain, is really one of the least destructive species. The most important item of the bird’s food, however, is weed seed, which forms practically all of its food in winter and about 57 per cent of the fare of the whole year.

The principal weed seeds eaten are those of ragweed, barnyard grass, and smartweed. That these seeds are preferred is shown by the fact that the birds begin to eat them in August, when grain is still readily obtainable, and continue feeding on them even after insects become plentiful in April. The red-wing eats very little fruit and does practically no harm to garden or orchard.

Nearly seven-eighths of its food is made up of weed seed or of insects injurious to agriculture, indicating unmistakably that the bird should be protected, except, perhaps, in a few places where it is overabundant.

The 1926 revision: reduction is justifiable

From the 1926 printing. — Examination of 1,083 stomachs showed that vegetable matter forms 74 per cent of the food, while animal matter, mainly insects, forms but 26 per cent. A little more than 10 per cent consists of beetles, mostly harmful species. Weevils, or snout beetles, amount to 4 per cent of the year’s food, but in June reach 25 per cent.

As weevils are among the most harmful insects known, their destruction should condone some, at least, of the sins of which the bird is accused. Grasshoppers constitute nearly 5 per cent of the food, while the rest of the animal matter is made up of various insects, a few snails, and crustaceans. The few dragon flies found were probably picked up dead, for they are too active to be taken alive, unless by a bird of the flycatcher family. So far as the insect food as a whole is concerned, the red-wing may be considered entirely beneficial.

From the 1926 printing. — The interest in the vegetable food of this bird centers around grain. Only three kinds, corn, wheat, and oats, were found in the stomachs in appreciable quantities. They aggregate but little more than 13 per cent of the whole food, oats forming nearly half of this amount. Field investigation has shown, however, that, when local conditions are favorable, large flocks of red-wings may do considerable damage.

Conspicuous among such cases are the losses suffered by farmers to sweet corn in some of the northeastern States and to milo in the South and West. In the rather limited grain-raising area of the Imperial Valley of California the annual damage to milo alone by enormous flocks of red-wings and yellow-headed blackbirds has been estimated to be fully $50,000.

The most important item of the bird’s food, however, is weed seed, which forms practically all of its food in winter and about 57 per cent of the fare of the whole year. The principal weed seeds eaten are those of ragweed, barnyard grass, and smartweed. That these seeds are preferred is shown by the fact that the birds begin to eat them in August, when grain is still readily obtainable, and continue feeding on them even after insects become plentiful in April.

The red-wing eats very little fruit and does practically no harm to garden or orchard. It is apparent that where moderately abundant, the red-wing does more good than harm, but in sections where it becomes excessively abundant a reduction in its numbers is justifiable.

Three ledgers at a glance

Source

Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer, U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin 630 (1915 edition), “The Grackles,” “Brewer Blackbird,” and “The Red-winged Blackbirds.” Project Gutenberg #62696. Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer, Farmers’ Bulletin 630 (1926 revised edition), “The Red-winged Blackbirds.” Project Gutenberg #62678. Public domain. Project Gutenberg #62696 and #62678.

Passages reproduced verbatim; where the editions agree the cleaner 1915 text is quoted, and the two red-wing paragraphs the 1926 revision changed are quoted from that printing, labeled. The 1926 verdict licensing population “reduction” is period fact, reproduced dated and unendorsed. Mechanical edits: hard-wrapped lines rejoined; footnote markers ([35], [36], [41], [42]) and their Latin-name footnotes removed; illustration placeholders and “(fig. 11)”/“(fig. 14)” cross-references removed; italic underscores dropped; one OCR fix in the 1926 text, “mainly Insects, forms but 26 per cent A little” → “mainly insects, forms but 26 per cent. A little.” No other changes.