Yellow-Headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

      (Any Open Water)
   adjacent to:
      Marsh 2

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: Yellow-headed Blackbirds breed in stands of cattails or phragmites found in marshes, sloughs, marshy lake margins, sewage lagoons, and other areas with permanent standing water. The need for deep water seems a limiting factor in their occurrence as they are not found nesting in stands of similar vegetation where water levels fluctuate. It has been suggested by Willson and others that this species depends on water from 0.6 to 1.2 m in depth for protection against terrestrial predators and as a source for its primary forage of aquatic insects. This choice of habitat also minimizes competition with the much more abundant Red-winged Blackbird, which does not frequently nest over open water.

Nests are constructed of water-soaked aquatic vegetation interwoven with upright growing plants. Nests are situated 15 to 91 cm above the water's surface.

Habitat: Fresh marshes. Forages in fields, open country. Breeds in freshwater sloughs, marshy lake borders, tall cattails growing in water up to 3-4 feet deep. Forages around marshes and also commonly in open pastures, plowed fields, cattle pens, feedlots.

Diet: Mostly insects and seeds. Feeds heavily on insects in summer, especially beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers, also ants, wasps, and others, plus a few spiders and snails. Young are fed mostly insects. Probably two-thirds of diet consists of seeds, including grass and weed seeds plus waste grain.

Nest: Placed in marsh, firmly lashed to standing vegetation (cattails, bulrushes, reeds) growing in water, usually no more than 3 feet above water's surface. Nest is a bulky, deep cup woven of aquatic plants, lined with dry grass or with fine, dry marsh plants.