Bobolink

The Bobolink is a distinctive grassland songbird best known for the breeding male's bold, unusual plumage: entirely black underparts and face contrasted with a creamy-yellow nape patch and white patches on the back and rump, essentially a tuxedo worn backward. After breeding, males molt into a much plainer, sparrow-like buffy-brown plumage resembling the female, which is streaked brown and buff year-round and easily overlooked among grassland sparrows.

Bobolinks undertake one of the longest migrations of any songbird in the Americas, traveling roughly 20,000 km (12,000 miles) round-trip each year between North American breeding grounds and wintering areas in the grasslands of southern South America.

Key Field Marks

• Breeding male: black underparts and face, pale straw-yellow nape, white scapulars and rump patches
• Female and non-breeding male: streaky buff-brown, sparrow-like, with a bold buffy crown stripe
• Short, pointed tail feathers with spiky tips
• Conical, finch-like bill
• Distinctive bubbling flight song delivered while fluttering over fields

Similar Species

• Breeding male Bobolinks are unmistakable due to the unique reversed black-and-white/yellow pattern found in no other North American bird.
• Female and non-breeding Bobolinks can resemble sparrows but are larger, with a sharper bill and distinctive pointed tail feathers.

Habitat

Bobolinks breed in open grasslands, especially hayfields, tallgrass prairie remnants, and weedy meadows with a mix of grasses and forbs.

Range

Breeds across the northern United States and southern Canada, from the Great Plains east to New England. Winters in grassland and marsh habitats of southern South America, including Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

Migration

An exceptionally long-distance migrant, the Bobolink makes an annual round-trip of roughly 20,000 km, one of the longest migrations of any songbird, passing through Central America and across open ocean stretches of the Caribbean and Gulf.

Behavior

Males perform a distinctive, bubbling flight display over territories, fluttering on shallow wingbeats while singing continuously. Bobolinks are highly social outside the breeding season, forming large flocks during migration and winter.

Voice

The song is a bubbly, tinkling, banjo-like cascade of notes, often rendered as "bob-o-link, bob-o-link, spink, spank, spink." The flight call is a distinctive metallic "pink" note.

Feeding

Feeds on insects, especially during the breeding season, and switches to seeds of grasses, weeds, and grain such as rice during migration and winter.

Nesting & Breeding

The female builds a well-concealed cup nest of grass directly on the ground within dense hayfield or prairie vegetation. Bobolinks are often polygynous, and females incubate 4-7 eggs alone; nests are highly vulnerable to hay mowing before fledging.