Overview

Bobolink: Small, lark-like blackbird, all-black except for buff nape, white rump, and white wing patches. Tertials and wing coverts are lined with buff. Tail feathers are sharply pointed. Legs and feet are gray. Eats caterpillars, insects, seeds and grains. Strong undulating flight.

Bobolink: Breeds from southern British Columbia across southern Canada to Nova Scotia and south to eastern Oregon, central Colorado, central Illinois, western Virginia, and western North Carolina. Spends winters in southern South America. Preferred habitats include prairies and meadows; stays on marshes during migration.

Listen to Call

Bobolink Voice

Voice Text

"bob-o-link, bob-o-link, pink, pink, pank, pink"

• The Bobolink is the only American bird that is black underneath and white on the back. This coloring makes the male stand out while he is performing his displays. After breeding he changes into a drab, camouflaged plumage to spend the rest of the year.
• They are one of the few songbirds that undergo two complete molts each year, completely changing its feathers on both the breeding and wintering grounds.
• Each fall, they gather in large numbers in southern rice fields, where their habit of eating grain has earned them the name "ricebird." They are collected as food in Jamaica, where they are called “butter birds”--a commentary on how fat they are as they pass through on migration.
• A group of bobolinks are collectively known as a "chain" of bobolinks.

• Western Meadowlark
• Dickcissel
• Yellow-headed Blackbird
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Lark Bunting

Blackbirds and Orioles (Icteridae)

ORDER

The largest taxonomic order of birds, the PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez), is divided into one hundred eighteen families and encompasses over half the world's known bird species, including many familiar birds such as finches, swallows, thrushes and blackbirds.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The blackbird family, Icteridae (pronounced ik-TER-i-dee), includes one hundred and four species in twenty-seven genera found only in the New World.

NORTH AMERICA

There are fifty-seven species of blackbirds in thirteen genera that occur in North America; included in this family are the long-tailed grackles, brightly colored orioles, and the meadowlarks and bobolink of the grasslands.

KNOWN FOR

Blackbirds such as the Red-winged Blackbird are known for their highly social flocking behavior while orioles are more known for their colorful plumage and woven hanging nests. In the case of the meadowlarks, it is their pleasant prairie songs that bring them recognition.

PHYSICAL

Most blackbirds and orioles are slender, long-tailed birds while the grassland loving meadowlarks, Bobolink and cowbirds have chunkier bodies and short tails. Despite these differences in body shape, all blackbirds share a sharp, straight bill that can be used to forage for both small creatures and grain. All blackbirds also have fairly long legs and strong feet.

COLORATION

Males of several blackbird species have mostly black plumage highlighted by iridescence or bits of bright color such as red markings in the wings or staring yellow eyes. Females lack such attention getting aspects to their plumage but make up for it with subtle browns and streaked patterns that camouflage them while sitting on their nests. Streaked, cryptic plumage also helps hide both sexes of meadowlarks while orioles stand out with striking orange, yellow and black plumages.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

In the United States and Canada, blackbird species are primarily birds of non-forest or second growth habitats including wetlands and in the case of meadowlarks and the Bobolink, grasslands. The lone forest dependent species is the Rusty Blackbird; a bird of wooded swamps.

MIGRATION

Most blackbirds are short distance migrants that leave the cold north for the milder winters of the southern states although the orioles and the Bobolink undertake long distance migrations to Central and South America.

HABITS

Most blackbirds are very social in nature with some species taking this behavior to an extreme in southern fields and wetlands during the winter months. In such areas, wintering flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds and grackles can form conglomerations of tens of thousands of birds that fill the country air with their rusty calls and sound of rushing wings.

CONSERVATION

The Icteridae include some of the most abundant bird species in North America. Nevertheless, two species, the Rusty and Tricolored Blackbirds, are threatened or endangered because of loss of their wetland habitats. One species, the Slender-billed Grackle, is presently listed as extinct, also due to the loss of its wetland habitat.

INTERESTING FACTS

The blackbird family includes the only brood parasites in North America; the cowbirds. Like the Old World Common Cuckoo, instead of building their own nests, cowbirds leave their eggs in the nests of other species; a behavior that has a negative impact on the host species' nestlings and has contributed to the decline in many songbird species populations. Many species of grackle are mimics, having the ability to reproduce some sounds they commonly hear around them; for those living in developed areas, car alarms are a frequently learned and reproduced sound.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

Artist

Irina Rud-Volga