The bobolink breeds from New England through the Great Lakes and into the northern portions of the Great Plains, spending its winters in southern South America. The breeding male bobolink is the sole bird in North America with white on its back and a black underbelly, observes the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. The bobolink is a species that requires open country and grasslands, declining in the East as farms and pastures are fewer and fewer.
Male Bobolink
On a male bobolink in its breeding plumage during spring and summer, the feathers on the chest, belly, tail and face are black. The bobolink's shoulders, rump and lower part of its back vary from a lighter shade of gray to all white, with the back of the head the same color as straw. The bill is shiny black. The non-breeding male bobolink looks much different, as it has a yellow underneath with blackish lines on the back, sides and under the tail region. A black stripe extends from behind the eyes and another runs on the top of the male's head. The wings and tail are a tint of brown.
Female Bobolink
The female bobolink is much less distinctive than the breeding male, with buff yellow under parts. The sides possess black streaks, as does the back and the area beneath the tail. The black stripes present on the male's head are also on the female's, with a buff-colored stripe existing above the bird's eyes and in the center of the crown of its head. The tail of the female along with the wings is brown and her bill is much paler than the male's is.
Size
A member of the blackbird family, the bobolink is from 5.9 to 8.3 inches in length, with a wingspan on the adult birds around 10.6 inches. The bobolink weighs from 1 to 2 oz. and the bird may appear chubby after it gets done feeding heavily in preparation for its long migratory flight in the autumn.
Behavior
The molting of the feathers on the bobolink occurs twice every year in the males, making the bobolink one of the rare songbirds that does this. The new breeding feathers, which come in when the bobolink is still in South America, have yellowish tips, which in time give way to the black/white plumage. If you live in the Deep South, you may find bobolinks by the thousands in rice fields as they eat greedily on their way south, a habit that earned the species the nickname of ricebirds.
Considerations
The bobolink will build its nest in such open country as hay fields, pastures, prairies and grasslands. The bobolink eats insects and seeds, feeding while foraging on the ground or while grasping hold of a stem of a plant. The male bobolink's black and white coloring prompts the nickname skunk blackbird. The bobolink makes a sound like "chek" when it calls out.
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