Lost ID help

I'm 99% sure I posted this photo for ID once before, but I cannot find it labeled in my files, nor did I find it anywhere else in the Avian gallery or forum. Soooo, I must be 99% wrong?! This was taken last summer at "The Brig" in New Jersey. If you can help me on the name again, I'll be sure to keep it!!! Thank you in advance.

Male Red-winged Blackbird Bill, notice the dark color and the epaulets?

Male Red-winged Blackbird.

Thank you both Mia and Alan... I knew it was something I should have known!!

And yes Mia, those brightly colored epaulets really make this bird striking. Too bad the leaf got in my way as well.

Bill,

Red-winged Blackbirds are fairly common in north America and this time of the year they are singing their little hearts out, you should easily be able to get another chance with them!

I hope so Mia... we just had a nice week of weather and I was out every day but didn't see one, or much variety as my travels were limited. Now we're in for 3 or 4 days of just wet and windy!! After that...

So long as we are ID'ing things, I'll let you know that its perch is Pokeweed, which is an invasive species. However, Pokeweed berries are important to many bird species, and it CAN be an attractive plant... before it grows out of control. Make sure your don't start eating the berries though, as they are poisonous

- Luke

Bill,

Luke is correct about the name of the plant but incorrect about it being an invasive species, which I presume to mean an introduced or imported plant or animal.

From Wikipedia:

The pokeweeds, also known as poke, pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot, polk salad, polk salat, polk sallet, inkberry or ombú, comprise the genus Phytolacca, perennial plants native to North America, South America, East Asia and New Zealand.

Pokeweed is an aggressive plant and can stunt the growth of surrounding vegetation.

Mia,

Please note I stated that it is an invasive plant, not a non-native plant. I know these terms are confused/combined often, but you can have native plants that are invasive, and you can have non-native plants that aren't invasive. An invasive plant is anything that has the ability to thrive and spread aggressively outside its natural range. Pokeweed often shows up in areas that were recently disturbed through clearing. Birds will expel the seeds of Pokweed in these disturbed areas and the plant will often out compete other native (and non-invasive) plants.

From the USDA Plants Profile:

This plant can be weedy or invasive according to the authoritative sources noted below.

- Luke

Luke, the most common definition for invasive species is an introduced species and the terminology can be confusing for people. Using the word agressive for a native plant or animal might be considered less confusing for some people and that is I why I stated what I did above. You did not state that the pokeweed was a native plant I merely corrected you so that others might not have the misconception that the pokeweed is non-native.

Agree to disagree

I have no disagreement Luke, in your original comment about the Pokeweed you labled it invasive without clarifying that the pokeweed is a native plant, I clarified that it is indeed a native species for other people.

Whoa, I won't eat the berries, that's all I know!

I think the best term to discribe Pokeweed is a "pioneer." For those who don't know, pioneers are plants that are first to colonize "new" ground. Ground that has been recently disturbed or changed in some way to make it open or bare again. Pokeweed is def one of those.