Photo: Bobolinks, Ruhikanta Meetei/Audubon Photography Awards
The Chatty Bobolink Reaches Northern Virginia
Jessica Bigger
One of most impressive songbirds to pass through Northern Virginia during migration is the Bobolink, Dolichonyx oryzivorus. I actually had an opportunity to learn more about this bird during the “Birding by Ear” class I attended in May, hosted by the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia. The Bobolink was the last bird we covered, by far one of our instructor’s favorite birds. So, it was fitting that he ended the three series course with the Bobolink. With its bubbly, metallic, garrulous song, composed of 25-50 notes in one phrase and lasting around 3.5 seconds, this bird is quite magnificent. Not only does the Bobolink have an elaborate song, but during the breeding season, males will sing while hovering like helicopters in the sky.
Bobolinks, Ruhikanta Meetei/Audubon Photography Awards
The American Bird Association included a quote from Ferdinand Schuyler Mathews from The Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music: “The Bobolink is indeed a great singer, but the latter part of his song is a species of musical fireworks….it is a mad, reckless, song-fantasia, an outbreak of pent-up, irrepressible glee. The difficulty in either describing or putting upon paper such music is unsurmountable. One can follow the singer through the first few whistled bars and then, figuratively speaking he lets down the bars and stampedes. I have never been able to ‘sort out’ the tones as they passed at this break-neck speed.”
The Bobolink gets its name from its diet. Bobolink literally means “rice eating.” Its diet consists of weed seeds, insect larvae, adult insects, and spiders. Yet, during migration and winter, Bobolinks generally stick to eating wild and domesticated rice, oats, other small grains, corn, tassels, and seeds from a variety of weeds. They focus more on insects during the breeding season, providing much needed protein to their clutch.
The breeding range covers southern Canada through the northern United States. The Bobolink is one of the longer distant migrants traveling more than 12,000 miles round trip. One Bobolink will travel a distance equal to 4 times the circumference of the earth in its lifetime.
Before heading all the way down to their wintering grounds, Bobolinks will stop over at freshwater marshlands and coastal wetlands in North America to molt before continuing their arduous journey back to South America. According to the Partners in Flight management document published in 2019, A Full Life Cycle Conservation Plan for Bobolink, these songbirds will stage in the Llanos grasslands of Venezuela and eastern Colombia for several weeks before continuing to their wintering grounds (grasslands and wetlands) in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. They will return along the same route back to North America for the breeding season.
Bobolinks are a species of concern. Although there is a still a large population, the population has declined more than 65% between 1966 and 2015. According to Partners in Flight, the population will likely continue to decline by 30% in the next twenty years. Many factors have contributed to the Bobolink’s decline. In South America, they are considered pests and are shot on site and they are also captured and sold as pets. However, the biggest contributor has been habitat loss and conflicting mowing schedules in North America during the breeding season.
To combat this problem, bird conservation organizations have been working with local governments, communities, and farmers to improve breeding habitat. The Bobolink Project, based in New England, encourages farmers to shape their fields in an oval pattern for the following reason: “Edge habitats (including tree lines that cut into fields) can expose grassland birds to a variety of predators, so grassland birds tend to avoid long and narrow, or convoluted fields.” The organization also provides participating farmers with economic assistance to adjust their mowing and harvesting schedules during the Bobolink breeding season.
By the time this article comes out, the Bobolinks in Northern Virginia might be well on their way to their breeding grounds. If you missed them this year, you will have a chance to spot them this fall, and definitely next spring to enjoy their colorful songs, metallic calls, beautiful plumage, and magnificent flight patterns.
Sources:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bobolink/overview
https://www.bobolinkproject.com
https://www.aba.org/bobolink-conservation/