Yellow Headed Blackbird

In the warm summer days, the Yellow Headed Blackbird moves from its southern habit to the northern sections of the western parts of Canada and the United States. Its range extends from the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario southward to Baja California in the West and to Missouri in Eastern North America. It is an uncommon resident in the summer in Michigan but will spend its summers there. Bird watchers see the Yellow Headed Blackbird in the Carolinas once or twice a year among large flocks of other blackbirds.

In the snow covered northern states and provinces the Yellow Headed Blackbird spends its time from California to Texas and in Mexico. Sometimes some birds winter in Costa Rica.

The preferred habitat of the Yellow Headed Blackbird is in fresh water bogs during the summer. They choose to live surrounded by cattails and bulrushes. When the bird migrates to its winter environment, birders see them in cultivated farmland, in acreage, and in meadows. Some birds inhabit areas around other water like lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.

The adult Yellow Headed Blackbird weighs about 2 1/4 ounces. The male Yellow Headed Blackbird has a glistening yellow top and an ebony colored chest. Bird watchers observe a white patch on his wing whether the bird flies or sits. The female has a duller yellow throat, and breast. Instead of black coloring the female and the juvenile bird has a grayish brown colored body. Also they have white stripes on their chest. Both adult Yellow Headed Blackbirds stand about 9 1/2 inches tall and have a pointed black beak.

A few days after the males arrive and claim his habitat of reeds over lasting open water the female birds arrive. Yellow Headed Blackbirds are very protective of their breeding territory. Then the polygamous male Yellow Headed Blackbird pursues the females. The males perch on raised marsh foliage with an expanded tail and wings and sings. The male may mate with six females depending on the quality of his chosen turf. Some females may mate and lay a second clutch.

The female builds a cumbersome, woven open-cup nest of wet marsh foliage in the reeds in about three to four days about six to thirty six inches above the water. The Yellow Headed Blackbird female after mating lays three to five greenish white eggs with black marks. After hatching the new born birds stay in the nest about twelve days.

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