tags: Yellow-headed Blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Yellow-headed Blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, photographed in Mary Ann Creek Rd & Chesaw Rd, Okanogan County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 1 April 2008 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/2000s f/7.1 at 300.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It's a yellow-headed black bird -- it's a Yellow-headed Blackbird! The only confusion species that springs to mind is Yellow-hooded Blackbird, a small, short-tailed blackbird in the same genus as our Red-winged, found in northern South America; the two are unlikely ever to overlap in range, though Yellow-headed has strayed south to Panama and Trinidad. Size, tail shape, and wing pattern should distinguish the Yellow-hooded and Yellow-headed handily, though, and the quiz photo shows just a hint of a white wing patch, a diagnostic mark for male Yellow-headed Blackbird.
The identification may have been an easy one, but let me add a further question: Where else, other than head and breast, do Yellow-headed Blackbirds have yellow feathers? If you don't know, get out there and look! You'll be surprised.
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That's an adult male Yellow-headed Blackbird. I can tell because I can see just a hint of its characteristic white primary coverts. :-)
black bird, yellow head...I'm stumped!
I have to reply to this one, because a friend of mine was bitten by the birding bug through me and was attempting to identify birds around her... When she asked me what the name was of those black birds with the yellow heads, and I told her they were Yellow-headed Blackbirds, she was silent on the phone, and then asked if that was really their name. "Well, if it's got an all-yellow head but the rest of it is black, and it likes to be near water, then yes, that's what it is."
Ah, another sensible name. But I understand Selasphorus's friend's doubt. :-)
Too bad its "secret field mark" is invisible in this photo.
Yellow Headed Blackbirds, please meet Yellow Hooded Blackbirds!
Oh, that's a neat point - I'd never HEARD of the Yellow-hooded Blackbird. It's easy to tell the difference when looking at Google images - but not so easy to describe it. The yellow seems paler and not quite so extensive, and the primaries are all black.... And, of course, this bird is in Washington state.