Yellow-headed Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbirds are approximately 8.5 inches long and have a sharply pointed black beak. Males have a bright yellow head and breast and are black from eye to bill. They have a completely black body and tail with only small white patches breaking up the black on its wings. Females have a dull yellow supercilium (eyebrow), breast and throat. Their breast is streaked with white while the remainder of their plumage is a gray-brown. Juvenile Yellow-headed Blackbirds are similar in color to the adult female.
The Yellow-headed Blackbird is found in freshwater marshes during the summer. They particularly like to live amongst cattails, tule, and bulrush. During migration and over the winter months, the Yellow-headed Blackbird is found in open, cultivated lands, in fields, and in pastures.
A polygynous breeder, the male Yellow-headed Blackbird stakes out his claim in a habitat of reeds over permanent open water. Females arrive to the area a few days later and are pursued by the males who sit on elevated vegetation with a spread tail and half-open wings and "sing." Sadly for human listeners, his song is composed of short, choked notes that sound more like a saw grating metal than a Romeo in love.
The male Yellow-headed Blackbird may be able to secure up to as many as six mates depending on the quality of his territory. Male Yellow-headed Blackbirds who acquire new territory do not destroy broods sired by the previous territorial male. This tolerance for unrelated young may help them attract new mates as the females may mate and lay a second clutch with the new male.
The
female Yellow-headed Blackbird lays 3-5 greenish-white eggs with dark marks.
Incubation lasts 11-13 days, and the chicks are altricial (helpless, naked, and
blind when hatched). They fledge within 9-12 days of hatching, and during their
time in the nest, both parents feed them. For the first four days after birth,
the chicks are fed at least partly by regurgitation. The amount of begging for
food by Yellow-headed Blackbird chicks is related to the amount of food the
parents bring to the nest. As nestlings, male Yellow-headed Blackbirds are
significantly larger than their female counterparts. Yellow-headed Blackbirds
only raise one, possibly two, broods each summer.