Understanding how birds move through and use landscapes across their annual cycle is a key goal of migration research. Breeding populations of Red‐winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) in the northern United States and Canada are known to migrate to the southern United States each fall and exhibit strong fidelity to the same breeding areas each spring. Previous mark–recapture studies of Red‐winged Blackbirds have characterized migratory movements, but these estimates are limited in detail because each bird is only captured (and located) a few times, with days to months between subsequent captures. Using light‐level geolocators, we tracked 13 male Red‐winged Blackbirds across one complete annual cycle to investigate both their fall and spring migrations. Birds consistently used routes straddling the Central and Mississippi flyways, with relatively small longitudinal differences between breeding and wintering sites. Fall migration began in late October to late November, and spring migration began in mid‐February to late March. On average, birds traveled longer distances and had marginally longer migration periods during the spring than the fall, in contrast to well‐established patterns in other songbirds. Route directness was high for most individuals, with little deviation from the shortest possible migratory routes. Birds occupying the same wetlands during the breeding season wintered across a relatively wide geographic range of locations in the south‐central United States. Overall, our results improve our understanding of the migratory pathways used by Red‐winged Blackbirds across their annual life cycle. Our results also have implications for understanding which control strategies are most appropriate for managing populations of Red‐winged Blackbirds that cause extensive damage to sunflower crops in the Northern Great Plains.
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