Black Birds

For the past week, ever since the last snowfall, a flock of about 60 to 100 black birds has been visiting the birdfeeder in our back yard.  At first we thought they were those ill reputed starlings or grackles, those gangster birds we resent feeding.  On closer look, there were only about 10 of the large birds of that type; the majority are smaller, with a stripe on their wings.  A few have the red stripe characteristic of the red winged blackbird, but in most, as far as we can determine, the stripe is white.  None of our bird books tell us anything about a white winged blackbird.  The female redwinged blackbird is described as brownish, not black, but all the birds in our backyard flock appear to be black, so either the females have been left elsewhere, or Audubon pinned the wrong bird carcass.   The book does say that blackbirds tend to travel with other black birds, such as starlings; therefore as is said, birds of a feather flock together.