Fauna Report - Yellow Headed Blackbird

Yellow Headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus)

Across North America the Yellow Headed Blackbird is found nesting in wet marsh areas. The medium sized bird places its nest in highly vegetated wetlands, such as cattails. They usually nest in colonies often sharing their habitat closely with Red Winged Blackbird. However, the Yellow Headed Blackbird is dominant to the Red-winged Blackbird and displaces the smaller blackbird from the prime nesting spots. During nesting, the males often get very territorial and spend time perched close to their nets chasing away intruders. Wherever there are cattails you can find Yellow Headed Blackbird, and often in the western part of the U.S. They depend on the marsh to eat, sometimes catching insects in flight, and grass hoppers on the ground. They adapt to their environment by sharing the food with other species, such as robins, brewer blackbirds, red winged blackbirds, and crows. The bird has a very distinctive call, of a couple of light musical notes followed by a loud scratching note that sounds like a door hinge. This is also their mating call. The male and female Yellow Headed Blackbird are easy to tell apart. The male has a bright yellow head and chest as well as a white patch on the wing, and the female has a dark chest and an irregular yellow shaded on her head. After mating the female lays 3 eggs each with small black spots on them. They range from 21 to 23 cm in size and a wing span of 42 to 44 cm. Their weight is about 44 to 100 grams, which translates to 1.55 to 3.53 ounces. The Yellow Headed Blackbird does not play a big role in its environment, making its niche somewhat small, although it helps keep the insect population down. Yellow Headed Blackbirds are a superior part of the environment, and without them the population of other animals would be thrown of balance.