THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD 



By THOMAS S. ROBERTS 



^^t /Rational Si&0omtion ot Siutuhon ^ocUtite 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 57 



The Yellow-headed Blackbird is preeminently a native of 

 Range the Great Plains, and, although in some parts of its range it 



invades regions not strictly prairie, it belongs by right to the 

 vast treeless plains of the interior and the sparsely wooded areas immediately 

 adjoining on the east and west. Over all this region it ranges, breeding from 

 the extreme northern part of Mexico in the south to southern British Columbia, 

 the Saskatchewan and Manitoba in the north. East and west it occurs reg- 

 ularly as a summer resident, from Wisconsin, Illinois, northwestern Indiana 

 and western Louisiana to the valleys of the Pacific Coast States. It winters 

 throughout the extreme southern portion of its United States range and on 

 the plateaus of Central Mexico. Farther east in the United States it is but a 

 rare wanderer. 



There is one invariable condition necessary to induce it 

 Haunts to establish a summer residence, and that is an abundant and 



permanent water-supply, and associated with this must be just 

 the kind of vegetation that is suited to its rather particular tastes. Preference 

 is given usually to a swamp or slough that is very wet and having more or 

 less open water; never meadows or marshes that are simply damp and subject 

 to drying out. 



The tule beds of the valleys of the Rockies, the quill-reed brakes of the 

 North, and the flag swamps of the South are alike acceptable. Wherever 

 the Yellow-head breeds it congregates in colonies, and these assemblages are 

 often of vast proportions. It is very loyal to its home-site and returns year 

 after year, even though the surroundings undergo great and uncongenial 

 changes, deserting it only with the drying up of the marsh. The Yellow-head 

 is very closely restricted to its special nesting haunts, and as the members of 

 each colony go in the spring directly to their particular rendezvous, and wander 

 but a little way into the surrounding country until after the completion of 

 the breeding period, they are easily overlooked if their nesting sloughs are 

 not numerous or their homes be not actually invaded. 



In the northward spring movement, the vanguard of the 

 Migration Yellow-heads that are to breed in Canada reach the Inter- 



national Boundary about May i, the males preceding the 

 females by a few days. In Minnesota, where the writer's entire experience 

 with this bird has been gained, stragglers enter the southern part of the state 



(250) 



