Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Yellow-headed Blackbird

The Yellow-headed Blackbird offers a harsh, unmusical utterance, even harsher than the Red-winged Blackbird, sounding quite like a rusty hinge.  They will roost and nest within thick, reedy marshes.  Sometimes these flocking birds will mix with other blackbirds to forage for invertebrates and seeds in pastures and fields, where they can obtain sufficient food in both arenas.  They can be found often in cow pastures where refuse from the animals is readily found to attract a variety of insects and flies.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful of blackbirds, the male of the species boasts a bright yellow head, throat, and breast with white primary wing coverts.

They are colonial nesters in marshes west of the Great Lakes, with the nest being attached to vegetation in marshes.  They often sit upon cattails to keep intruders out of their little piece of real estate by displaying and announcing their territorial rights, and often nest with Red-winged Blackbirds.  Breeding males usually have eight females at their disposal for breeding purposes and females will often mate with males in adjacent territories.  They have a cooperative relationship with Forster's Terns to mob predators or give alarm calls.  Yellow-heads may still be breeding in Texas County, OK, and are generally a new breeding species.

In winter, they often migrate to Mexico and the southwestern US, joining large flocks with other birds.  Northern wintering populations are mostly males, while the southern group is usually females.

An interesting feeding technique is opening their bills in the ground like a post hole digger to unearth food and they will also overturn stones for the delectables underneath.

For Views of the Yellow-headed Blackbird and Other Species:

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2017/05/pre-and-post-storm-events.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2017/04/springs-migrants-have-been-dropping-in.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2016/07/alls-quiet-before-proverbial-storm-not.html

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Baltimore Oriole

Here, here, come right here, dear

A common bird of open deciduous woods or tall trees, this solitary bird forages in mid- to upper level story trees for larvae and insects.  It will also eat fruit unless it is during breeding season.  Nectar is also a favorite from tubular flowers in any season.

This male icterid received its name from the colors on Lord Baltimore's coat of arms.  It was also once named the Northern Oriole until the name split with the Bullock's Oriole.  The two species will readily hybridize.

The passerine is located in the Nearctic during the summer, mostly in the eastern portion of the US.  Some of these birds have been known to spend winters in the southern states, but they also do the same as far north as Maine, where one spent two out of three winters in Downeast Maine.

These blackbirds enjoy tall trees but will not resort to forest living,. Their adaptability can keep them happy in riparian areas, parks, orchards, forest edges, or stands of trees along rivers, as well as other similar and suitable habitat. 

                                                             Male Baltimore Oriole
                                                           Boomer Lake Park, 2014

When paired, the female constructs the nest on the outer parts of limbs, an intricately woven basketlike pouched structure.  It is on a horizontal limb at a fork, and has been known to withstand hurricanes.  They prefer to nest in elm, oak, cottonwood, willow, maple, and apple trees, where the most insects congregate to feed on smaller bugs.

During migration, it is best to provide the darkest fruits possible, as well as an ample supply of water for drinking and bathing.  They also enjoy dark jellies and hummingbird and oriole feeders.

Raptors, other icterids, squirrels, and domestic cats are normal predators of this species, as well as their young.

To see more photos of the Baltimore Oriole with other birds on those days:

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2016/06/pass-out-cigars-we-are-parents.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-charge-of-boomer-brigade.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2015/06/with-love-from-birdie.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2015/06/birds-of-feather-photographed-together.html

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Orchard Oriole

The Orchard Oriole (an icterid) is a blackbird, as many other birds that sport black in their coloring.  They are uncommon in areas with isolated tall trees or where there are scattered shade trees, orchards, parks, and farmsteads.  Grasslands will also be considered if suitable nest sites are in the vicinity.  They prefer being in habitats with water, a solitary species, and glean insects and larvae and will take fruit and nectar at birdfeeders.  They are also attracted by trumpet shaped flowers for nectar.

A deep russet or burnt orange color, the male will sing at treetops to attract the yellow-green female, and is the smallest of the orioles.  Females make themselves attractive to males by head bowing, begging with rapid wing fluttering and a high whistle, and seesawing by alternately lowering and raising the head and tail.

                                                                     Male Orchard Oriole
                                                                       Boomer Lake Park

Experienced males will reach the breeding grounds first, followed by females, then the first year males.  These passerines do not compete with the Baltimore Oriole, possibly considering it an ally.  They will share large trees (oaks) with Eastern Kingbirds, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, American Robins, and other birds.

                                                               Juvenile Orchard Oriole
                                                                     Boomer Lake Park

Nests average about twenty feet high in crotches or forks of broadleafed trees, but willows or cottonwoods may also be used due to good shade.  It is a hanging basket made of woven fibers, but tends to be wider than deeper than the Baltimore Oriole.  They are single brooded, breeding from May through July in Oklahoma.

Females will occasionally be confused with New World Warblers, especially if the tail has been lost due to a predator's action.

                                                              Female Orchard Oriole
                                                                  Boomer Lake Park

Oklahoma Winter Bird Profile: Rusty Blackbird

Known as a bird with a light iris, the Rusty Blackbird is uncommon and can be found in Oklahoma in winter, if you are lucky.  Though drab and a loner, they once darkened the skies, much like the now extinct Passenger Pigeon.

A breeding bird of the boreal forest, this blackbird has been declining in population since the middle of last century for unestablished reasons.  One possibility is the loss of habitat in wintering regions in the southeast, where most of the species is located during that time.

Birds of the northeast have been showing high concentrations of mercury, not unusual where coal happens to be a source of heat and powering electrical plants.  If that fossil fuel becomes reestablished, chances are good that it will destroy the remaining populations, unless it relocates itself elsewhere.

Rusty Blackbirds forage on the ground and will wade in water in order to turn over leaves and twigs while seeking insects, which could also have high mercury concentrations.  Some of Oklahoma's lakes and other larger bodies of water can be suspect, especially around the Sooner Lake power plant, which is still partially coal fired.

                                                                       Rusty Blackbird
                                                                 Boomer Lake Park, 2016
                                                         
Logging in the winter ranges around bogs, fens and other wet methane reaches of spaghnum moss, the mechanical sound of a rusty hinge can be heard.  This is the sound of the Rusty Blackbird, which was once ubiquitous at the turn of the 1900s.

Climate change is no doubt playing a part in the loss of this population.  The rain comes and goes, their favorite invertebrates choked out by their loss of habitat, excess heat and cold, or any other negative effects.  Either their food departs for cooler or warmer climates as the seasons change, or they migrate to possibly even less favorable conditions.

Acid rain is likely another suspect in some of this mystery, because it was caused by the combustion of fossil fuels.  It is due to the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.  Also, we must look at the effects of toxic algal blooms, which destroys ecosystems that these birds favor, and that's where pesticide runoff will accumulate, which can also kill the inhabitants of these systems.  A stronger case is the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is spreading to their wintering areas.

What is most necessary is the preservation of crucial wetlands, less disturbance, and more birders to seek out their habitats and report their findings to the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group during select spring migrations and on eBird.

In the winter, the rusty seeks pine seeds, acorns, and whatever available fruit it can locate.

They can be found on edges of lakes or ponds, in pecan orchards, agricultural areas, flooded forests, swamps, flooded roadside ditches, and the like.

Rusty Blackbird(s) have been seen during most winters at Sanborn or Boomer Lakes from 2013-2018.