Share your observations of plants or non-game animals with the Natural Heritage Inventory
Help care for rare plants and animals by ordering an Endangered Resources plate.
Photo © A.B. Sheldon
Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), a Special Concern species in Wisconsin, is a very rare boreal breeder with only four confirmed nesting records in Wisconsin in the past 150 years. This species prefers to nest in dense thickets close to the water's edge in bogs, muskegs, alder and willow swamps, beaver ponds, and along stream and lake edges in wet coniferous and mixed forests. Typically single-brooded, re-nesting occurs when the initial clutch is lost. Since this species does not breed in Wisconsin, avoidance dates do not apply.
The table below provides information about the protected status - both state and federal - and the rank (S and G Ranks) for Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus). See the Working List Key for more information about abbreviations. Counties shaded blue have documented occurrences for this species in the Wisconsin Natural Heritage Inventory database. The map is provided as a general reference of where occurrences of this species meet NHI data standards and is not meant as a comprehensive map of all observations.
Note: Species recently added to the NHI Working List may temporarily have blank occurrence maps.
| Summary Information | |
|---|---|
| State Status | SC/M |
| Federal Status in Wisconsin | none |
| State Rank | S2B,S2N |
| Global Rank | G4 |
| Tracked by NHI | Y |
| WWAP | SGCN |
A guidance document is not available at this time. However, the bird calendar [PDF] contains dates for avoiding impacts to this and other rare Wisconsin birds when planning management activities.
Click to view a larger version. Please considering donating a photo to the Natural Heritage Conservation Program for educational uses. Photo use
Rusty Blackbird
Photo © Dave Menke.
Photo © Donna Dewhurst.
Rusty Blackbird
Photo © A.B. Sheldon.
The table below lists the natural communities that are associated with Rusty Blackbird. Only natural communities for which Rusty Blackbird is "high" (score=3) or "moderate" (score=2) associated are shown. See the key to association scores for complete definitions. Please see the Wildlife Action Plan to learn how this information was developed.
| Natural community | Score |
|---|---|
| Floodplain Forest | 3 |
| Southern Hardwood Swamp | 3 |
| Alder Thicket | 2 |
| Bog Relict | 2 |
| Calcareous Fen | 2 |
| Central Poor Fen | 2 |
| Emergent Marsh | 2 |
| Ephemeral Pond | 2 |
| Great Lakes Ridge and Swale | 2 |
| Lacustrine Mud Flat | 2 |
| Muskeg | 2 |
| Open Bog | 2 |
| Patterned Peatland | 2 |
| Poor Fen | 2 |
| Riverine Mud Flat | 2 |
| Shrub Carr | 2 |
| Southern Tamarack Swamp (rich) | 2 |
The table below lists the ecological landscape association scores for Rusty Blackbird. The scores correspond to the map (3=High, 2=Moderate, 1=Low, 0=None). For more information, please see the Wildlife Action Plan.
Ecological priorities are the combinations of natural communities and ecological landscapes that provide Wisconsin's best opportunities to conserve important habitats for a given Species of Greatest Conservation Need. The 10 highest scoring combinations are considered ecological priorities and are listed below. More than 10 combinations are listed if multiple combinations tied for 10th place. For more information, please see the Wildlife Action Plan.
* Ecological priority score is a relative measure that is not meant for comparison between species. This score does not consider socio-economical factors that may dictate protection and/or management priorities differently than those determined solely by ecological analysis. Further, a low ecological priority score does not imply that management or preservation should not occur on a site if there are important reasons for doing so locally.
Conservation actions respond to issues or threats, which adversely affect species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) or their habitats. Besides actions such as restoring wetlands or planting resilient tree species in northern communities, research, surveys and monitoring are also among conservation actions described in the WWAP because lack of information can threaten our ability to successfully preserve and care for natural resources.