THE OUTDOOR JOURNAL

Bobolinks

It’s one of the world’s most impressive songbird migrants, and might travel the equivalent of 4 or 5 times around the circumference of the earth in it’s lifetime.  Bobolinks travel back and forth from Argentina in southern South America each year, for total round trip of about 12,500 miles. 

I’ve seen several the past week or so here in north Missouri around un-mowed grass pastures. A grassland species, These birds can be spotted now, while the “males are giving their display flights during spring and early summer. Cornell’s All About Birds says, “breeding male Bobolinks are striking. No other North American bird has a white back and black underparts (some have described this look as wearing a tuxedo backwards). Added to this are the male’s rich, straw-colored patch on the head and his bubbling, virtuosic song. As summer ends he molts into a buff and brown female-like plumage. ..In grassy or overgrown fields and pastures, listen for a long, burbling song punctuated with sharp metallic notes. The male Bobolink often sings this song while flying in a peculiar helicopter-like pattern, moving slowly with his wings fluttering rapidly.” 

Bobolinks eat weed seeds, insect larvae, adult insects, spiders, and other arachnids. They feed their protein-dependent nestlings with invertebrates exclusively. 

Bobolinks are still fairly common but, “their U.S. population declined by over 2% per year between 1966 and 2015, resulting in a cumulative decline of 65%, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.” To improve the Bobolink’s prospects, people can maintain its breeding habitat by mowing fields annually once nestlings have fledged, and managing natural prairies through prescribed burning. 

So keep the binoculars handy in your vehicle and slow down for a look around those pastures, you might be in for a treat.

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