Bobolink
Dolichonyx oryzivorus
Breeding male is distinctive with black body, white rump, and creamy nape. Females and nonbreeders are drastically different, yellow-brown with fine streaking on breast sides, and stripes on head. Smaller than Red-winged Blackbird with shorter bill. Spiky tail feathers. In the blackbird family, although often mistaken as a sparrow. Breeds in open fields. Listen for male's bubbly song. Often in flocks during fall migration; departs early for wintering grounds in South America.
Identification
Measurements:<p>Adults are 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) long with short finch-like bills and weigh about 28 g (1 oz). Adult males are mostly black with creamy napes and white scapulars, lower backs, and rumps. Adult females are mostly light brown with black streaks on the back and flanks, and dark stripes on the head; their wings and tails are darker.
Taxonomy
Genus: Dolichonyx; Family: Icteridae; Order: Passeriformes.
- Scientific name
- Dolichonyx oryzivorus
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Icteridae
- Genus
- Dolichonyx
Range and habitat
The bobolink breeds in the summer in North America across much of southern Canada and the northern United States; from 1966 to 2015 the species experienced a greater than 1.5% annual population decrease throughout most of its breeding range, extending from the Midwestern United States to the Canadian Maritimes. The bobolink migrates long distances, wintering in southern South America. One bird was tracked migrating 12,000 mi (19,000 km) over the course of the year, often flying long distances up to 1,100 mi (1,800 km) in a single day, then stopping to recuperate for days or weeks.<p>Bobolinks often migrate in flocks, feeding on cultivated grains and rice, which leads to them being considered a pest by farmers in some areas. Although bobolinks migrate long distances, they have rarely been sighted in Europe — like many vagrants from the Americas, the majority of records are from the British Isles.<p>The species has been known in the southern United States as the "reedbird," or the "ricebird" from their consumption of large amounts of the grain from rice fields in South Carolina and the Gulf States during their southward migration in the fall. One of the species' main migration routes is through Jamaica, where they are called "butter-birds" and at least historically were collected as food, having fattened up on the aforementioned rice.<p>Bobolinks are the only species of land bird known to annually migrate through the Galápagos Islands, which are over 2,000 km from their primary migration route. A bobolink was collected in the Galápagos Islands by Charles Darwin in 1835. Bobolinks have been hypothesized to act as vectors for avian malaria-causing parasites arriving in the Islands. Additionally, bobolinks in the Galápagos have been found with seeds from Drymaria cordata, a plant native to the Galápagos but highly invasive elsewhere, entangled in their feathers, potentially spreading them to the mainland.
- Breeding range
- NA : s Canada and n USA
- Non-breeding range
- c SA
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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