Bird Photos What kind of bird is black, has a white stripe on the underside of each wing running parallel to body?

Question by skorskiw: What kind of bird is black, has a white stripe on the underside of each wing running parallel to body?
I saw about 40 of these birds flying in circles above my yard. They looked as if though they were playing tag in a giant flock.

They were black, had a white stripe on the underside of each wing (only the males) running parallel to body, from below, they flew in the shape of a “t” or cross, i.e. wings were perpendicular to body. They were medium sized.

This is in Connecticut and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before.

Best answer:

Answer by Ted H
The most likely candidate is the red winged blackbird. Some varieties look like they have white stripes, as in these photos:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.timesunion.com/birding/files/2008/04/birds-red-winged-blackbird-male-in-sleet_edited.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.timesunion.com/birding/category/february/&usg=__zxM12ez_ZoXc54id68N4S8R2K1M=&h=499&w=600&sz=172&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=y8iNh3x96tfR5M:&tbnh=112&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblackbird%2Bwhite%2Bstripe%2Bflocks%2Bconnecticut%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://l.b5z.net/i/u/6102677/i/red_wing_black_bird_300.jpg&imgrefurl=http://garden-of-wonder.com/red-winged-blackbirds&usg=__3Sgfni9nR7IsI2OXXmP9cq7yHUU=&h=288&w=300&sz=45&hl=en&start=24&tbnid=oXim_R5nmcmBKM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dred%2Bwing%2Bblackbird%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18

I actually saw some myself recently that looked like they didn’t have any red on them. It was hidden in the wing.

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Tags:bird, black, body, each, kind, parallel, photos, running, Stripe, underside, white, Wing