How to Identify aYellow-headed Blackbird
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus · 8.3–10.2 in (21–26 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Glossy black body with a vivid yellow head, throat and chest, and a bold white wing patch.
Female
Dusky brown with a duller yellow throat and chest and no white wing patch.
Male photo: Blalonde / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Female photo: Kevin Cole from Pacific Coast, USA (en:User:Kevinlcole) / Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0
Field marks
- Brilliant yellow head against a black body
- White wing patch on the male, visible in flight
- Black mask around the eye
- Larger than a Red-winged Blackbird
Similar species
What it sounds like
A harsh, grating, mechanical scrape often compared to a rusty gate hinge — one of the least musical bird sounds in North America.
Behaviour that gives it away
Takes the deepest-water cattails in a marsh and pushes Red-winged Blackbirds out to the shallower edges.
Habitat & range
Deep cattail and bulrush marshes across the western and central states.
When you'll see it
A summer visitor that arrives to breed in western and central North America.
What it eats
Insects in summer, and seeds and waste grain the rest of the year.
Did you know?
It outcompetes Red-winged Blackbirds for the prime deep-water nesting spots, forcing them into the marsh margins.
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