WESTERN BIRDS BoboUnfc 



Jersey; wintering south of the United States. Rare 

 transients in California. 



In his summer robe the male bird is distinctive enough 

 to make identification easy. His under parts, wings, 

 tail, foreback, and face, and crown are a lustrous black. 

 The back of head and neck has a buff or creamy patch, 

 some of the same color striping the foreback and wings; 

 the lower back, rump, and tail coverts, as well as a 

 large patch on the wing, are white; the bill is stout and 

 Finch-like. The females' prevailing color is yellowish- 

 brown, the under parts paler and plain except for streaks 

 on flanks; the crown and upper parts are heavily 

 streaked with brown. In the fall, after nesting duties 

 are over, the male changes his gay attire for that of the 

 female and becomes the Reedbird, or Ricebird, of the 

 south. The transition period produces a peculiar bird; 

 one neither male nor female. The breast is mottled with 

 black, the white wing-patch remains, and a white nape. 

 The young birds resemble the female but are buffer and 

 more olivaceous. 



Chapman says: "In June our fields and meadows echo 

 with the Bobolink's 'mad music' as, on quivering wing, 

 he sings in ecstasy to his mate on her nest in the grasses 

 below. What a wonderful song it is! An irrepressible 

 outburst; a flood of melody from a heart overflowing 

 with the joy of early summer." Mrs. Bailey relates in 

 "Birds of Village and Field" a curious sight observed by 

 herself. A singing Bobolink when in mid-air raised his 

 wings over his back and held them there like set sails, 

 and then threw up his head and throat as if to let the 

 song bubble out. The flying birds often put down their 

 wings and hold them stiff as they sail down to the ground. 



They are gregarious birds that congregate in open 

 fields and meadows and place their nests on the ground. 

 If the field adjoins an orchard they are glad to use the 

 trees for their concerts, but nodding grasses and weeds 



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