Yellow-headed Blackbird

Yellow-headed Blackbird, male

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Yellow-headed Blackbird, female

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

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.

Description

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

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

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.

Sound

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

Conservation Status

Continentwide population increasing. Local populations fluctuate with wetland conditions.

Other Names

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

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.

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.