032525 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/columns/birding-today-purple-sandpiper-moves-at-start-of-spring/article_55ab3041-3b4c-4a9b-ba01-478cc15150e2.html 

Oklahoma Migratory Species Profile: Clay-colored Sparrow

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This common migratory sparrow is similar to a Chipping Sparrow, but more buffy overall and paler.
Since we will see it (as a non-breeding bird in the fall), it sports a clean gray nape, a strong dark mustache, a pale eyering, pale lores, and a buffy breastband.

As shrubland and field edge breeders, these passerines will visit Christmas tree farms and grass areas with short and scattered coniferous trees.

                                                     Clay-colored Sparrow, fall plumage
                                                              Boomer Lake Park, 2016

Wintering in southern Texas and south, as well as breeding in the north central US and the western Boreral Forest, it passes through the prairie and Great Plains states.  In the winter, if one travels to those regions, it can be found in the company of White-crowned, Brewer's, and Chipping Sparrows along upland plains, brushy hillsides, and fields.

Fond of shrubs and forbs, they will dine upon soapberry, mesquite, mustard, and spiders, small insects, as well as moths.  Brushy areas of streams and rivers can be a favored location to locate them, where they will be observed hopping under thickets.  This is a fabulous hot spot during their migratory period.

They are parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird during breeding season, which could be attributed to their slight population decline.

For More Clay-colored Sparrow Photos, See:

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

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