Bobolink - bird of the week

The bobolink’s species name oryzivorus means “rice-eating” and refers to this bird’s penchant for grains, particularly during migration and on wintering grounds. When on the move, bobolink flocks can eat large quantities of grains, and the birds are often shot as agricultural pests, particularly on their wintering grounds. Bobolinks are known as “butter birds” in Jamaica, where the plumped-up migrants are sometimes harvested for food as they pass through that country.

 William Cullen Bryant captured the sound and sex life of bobolinks in his poem, “Robert of Lincoln,” according to the Hitchcock Center: 

Here’s the second verse:

  “Robbert of Lincoln is gayly dressed, Wearing a bright black wedding-coat;

   White are his shoulders and white his crest Hear him call in his merry note:

   Bob-o’-link, bob-o’-link, Spink, spank, spink;

    Look, what a nice coat is mine. Sure there was never a bird so fine.

   Chee, chee, chee.”

Emily Dickinson mentioned bobolinks, which she called ““the rowdy of the meadow” with  “impudent habiliment,”  a dozen of her poems, including this:

    “The Bobolink is gone –

    The Rowdy of the Meadow – 

     And no one swaggers now but me – The Presbyterian Birds

Can now resume the Meeting

He boldly interrupted that overflowing Day When supplicating mercy

In a portentous way

He swung upon the Decalogue And shouted let us pray”

The bobolink is a champion long-distance migrant, traveling roughly 12,000 miles round-trip to and from central South America each year. During its lifetime, a bobolink may travel the same distance as four or five laps around the world.

After the breeding season, bobolinks begin to gather in flocks and move to freshwater marshes and coastal areas to molt and fatten up before migrating. Male bobolinks exchange their conspicuous breeding dress for plainer buff and brown plumage resembling that of females and immatures. In all plumages, bobolinks can be identified by their stiff-looking, sharply-pointed tail feathers.

Most bobolinks winter east of the Andes in the grasslands (or pampas) of southwestern Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina, and central Bolivia. Geolocator data revealed that bobolinks often pause for several weeks in the grasslands of Venezuela, Colombia, or Bolivia before continuing on to wintering areas.

The bobolink breeds in native grasslands and agricultural fields across southern Canada and in the United States from eastern Washington and Oregon through the upper Midwest, to the northeastern states.

Male bobolinks arrive on the breeding grounds ahead of the females and compete for territories through fluttering, hovering flight displays and complex, rollicking, bubbly, twangy songs. The birds likely get their common name from the notes at the song’s crescendo. (One early interpretation was “Bob o’ Lincoln.”) Males also display from perches with tails spread and wings drooped to display large white shoulder patches, their bills pointed down to show off their golden-yellow napes.

After mating, the drably colored female builds her cup-shaped nest on the ground, well-hidden in dense vegetation. She alone broods the clutch of five to seven eggs. Bobolinks are polygynous, meaning that males may have several mates per breeding season. A female also may mate with many males (called polyandry), so a single bobolink clutch may have multiple fathers.

Both parents feed the nestlings, sometimes with the assistance of a “helper,” a bird that may be offspring from the previous year or an adult that lost its brood. Young leave the nest about eight to 14 days after hatching and stay hidden until they are able to fly. Bobolinks raise only one brood per year.

During the breeding season, bobolinks eat seeds and a variety of larval and adult insects and spiders, as well as snails. Young birds are fed invertebrates, as they need the protein to grow quickly. This species feeds on the ground or low in vegetation. During migration and winter, bobolinks become almost entirely granivorous (seed-eating), feeding on wild and domesticated rice, sorghum, oats, and other grains.