Yellow-headed Blackbird

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

Tordo Cabeciamarillo

 

Audio 2 (M. Oberle)

 
Immature male - Photo: G. Beaton

 

A large, black bird with a yellow head and white wing patches. The female is brown with a yellow breast. Length: 22 cm.; weight: males 98 g.; females 56 g. Audio 2 (M. Oberle). Breeds in the western USA and Canada. Winters from California south to Central America. Accidental in Puerto Rico (La Parguera, 2 January 1999 and at Caja de Muertos Island).

TAXONOMY: PASSERIFORMES; ICTERIDAE

 
Breeding plumage males -
Photo: D. Roberson

 

Males, breeding plumage - Photo: S. Bentsen

 

Immature male -
Photo: S. Bentsen

 

Adult male, Caja de Muertos Island-
Photo: J. Bauer

 

Adult male, Caja de Muertos Island-
Photo: J. Bauer

References

Arendt, W.J. 1992. Status of North American migrant landbirds in the Caribbean region: a summary. Pp. 143-171 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Bent, A.C. 1958. Life histories of North American blackbirds, orioles, tanagers, and allies. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 211. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1965).

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birderÆs handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Schuster/ Fireside, NY.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Twedt, D.J. and R.D. Crawford. 1995. Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus). No. 192 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, D.C.

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Spanish text

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