Yellow-headed Blackbird

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family ICTERIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Its brilliant yellow head, together with its loud, rusty-hinge call, make the Yellow-headed Blackbird a conspicuous presence in western wetlands. It breeds in loose colonies and places its nest over water, attached to cattails and reeds.

Cool Facts

• A few Yellow-headed Blackbirds appear nearly every winter along the East Coast, especially in Florida. Occasionally a few go even further afield; vagrants have been seen in Iceland and northern Europe.
• The Yellow-headed Blackbird often nests in the same marsh as the Red-winged Blackbird. The larger Yellow-headed Blackbird is dominant to the Red-winged Blackbird, and displaces the smaller blackbird from the prime nesting spots. The Yellow-headed Blackbird is strongly aggressive toward Marsh Wrens too, probably because of the egg-destroying habits of the wrens. When the Yellow-headed Blackbird finishes breeding and leaves the marsh, Marsh Wrens expand into former blackbird territories.

• The male Yellow-headed Blackbird defends a small territory of prime nesting reeds. He may attract up to eight females to nest within his area. The male helps feed nestlings, but usually only in the first nest established in his territory. The other females have to feed their young all by themselves.

Description

• Size: 21-26 cm (8-10 in)
• Wingspan: 42-44 cm (17-17 in)
• Weight: 44-100 g (1.55-3.53 ounces)

• Large songbird.
• Male unmistakable with black body and yellow head.

• Moderately long tail.
• White wing patch in males.
• Bill black and sharply pointed.
• Legs black.
• Feathers ringing the cloaca are bright yellow.

Sex Differences

Male with bright yellow hood, black body and white wing patches; smaller female with dark, dull brown body, and irregular yellowish on face and chest.

Male

Head, neck, and breast bright yellow. Body black. Black stripe in front of eye to bill. White patches in wing may be visible while perched, or hidden; conspicuous in flight.

Female

Body dull black and brown. Breast and throat pale yellow. Yellow on neck, face, and above eye. White streaking extending from yellow into brown lower chest.

Immature

Juvenile buffy with dark flecks, dark wings and tail, and two large white wingbars; seen only on breeding grounds. Young quickly become similar to adult female. Immature male has more extensive yellow and a thin white patch in the wing.

Similar Species

• Male unmistakeable.
• Female Red-winged Blackbird can be yellowish in face, but is usually more buffy and is extensively streaked.

Sound

Song a few musical notes followed by harsh, scratchy buzzing, like very large, very rusty metal hinges squealing.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from central British Columbia eastward to very western Ontario, southward into central California, central New Mexico, and northern Illinois. Scattered small populations further east along the Great Lakes to Ohio.

Winter Range

Winters from southern Arizona and western Texas southward to southern Mexico. Some birds winter in California.

Habitat

Breeds in prairie wetlands and along other western lakes and marshes where tall reeds and rushes are present. Forages in the wetlands and in surrounding grasslands and croplands. In winter large flocks forage in agricultural areas.

Food

Aquatic insects, grain, and weed seeds.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans and probes for insects near water. Large flocks glean weed seeds and waste grain from fields, moving in a characteristic rolling or leap-frog motion where birds in the back of the flock fly up and land at the front of the flock.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest an open cup woven of strips of reeds, attached to dead or live reeds. Always placed over water.

Egg Description

Grayish white with numerous dark brown spots and blotches.

Clutch Size

Usually 3-4 eggs. Range: 1-5.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with sparse down.

Conservation Status

Continentwide population increasing. Local populations fluctuate with wetland conditions.

Other Names

Carouges à tête jaune (French)
Tordo cabeciamarillo (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Twedt, D. J., and R. D. Crawford. 1995. Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus). In The Birds of North America, No. 192 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.