The Blackbird's Reward by Mick Zerr 2017

Children often wonder about things in nature, and why they are that way. Around the wonderful wetlands of eastern Dakota, the beautiful Yellow-headed Blackbird often draws the question as to why its song is so unpleasant. Children need answers that make sense, so here is the story of the Yellow-headed Blackbird’s beautiful colors and croaking song.

     As the ancient story goes:

     In the beginning, birds were given the choice of many beautiful colors, as they were all black. Unfortunately, one of the birds arrived late, and all the choices were already taken. The now beautiful all-yellow Goldfinch, who was the last to select, was curious as to why the poor bird was late, and asked him why. The blackbird replied, in a weak croaking voice, that on his way he came upon an eagle that had just learned to fly, and needed to climb a tree to take off so he could select a his color with the rest of the birds . The kindly blackbird helped the eagle up the tree, (cheering him on as he ascended each branch), so he could fly to get his color choice, as he wanted to be a beautiful all white bird as white as the clouds high up in the sky.  But the young eagle kept falling just as he was near the top. Blackbird would not give up, as he had been helped to fly for the first time when he was a fledgling by a most patient mother blackbird. He said to the eagle “young eagle, look to the clouds, for it is your destiny to fly the highest and soar the longest so you can keep a keen eye on all of nature below”. So as the eagle moved up to each branch, blackbird would sing as loud as he could, “Look to the clouds and fly high!” Each time the young eagle heard the blackbird’s song, he would get stronger, and soon he was at the highest branch and lifted his long wings and the wind took him high in the sky. He looked back at the tired blackbird and did an aerial display of great skill to show his gratitude. Blackbird was very pleased that eagle made it and tried to sing out “good luck”, but by now he had lost his voice from cheering the eagle on, and only croaking came out.

     Blackbird was very tired from helping the heavy eagle so he had to rest, and that is why he was late. Just then, the white eagle showed up and saw the blackbird talking to the beautiful yellow Goldfinch, who told the eagle that blackbird did not make it on time, and could not ever be beautiful. After some discussion between them, eagle and Goldfinch told blackbird that his sacrifice to help eagle out must be rewarded, so the beautiful white eagle gave his white body color to blackbird's wings, and Goldfinch took the color from his beautiful yellow wings and gave it to blackbird's head, and to this day, that is why Goldfinch have black wings and yellow bodies, Bald Eagles have white heads and dark bodies, and the Yellow-headed Blackbird, who has a hoarse crackly voice, has a beautiful yellow head and striking white wing patches.