Blackbirds & Cowbirds in Belize | Belize Budget Suites

Blackbirds & Cowbirds - in Belize

Bobolink

Bobolink - Breeding male is distinctive with black body, white rump, and creamy nape. Females and nonbreeders are drastically different, yellow-brown with fine streaking on breast sides, and stripes on head. Smaller than Red-winged Blackbird with shorter bill. Spiky tail feathers. In the blackbird family, although often mistaken as a sparrow. Breeds in open fields. Listen for male's bubbly song. Often in flocks during fall migration; departs early for wintering grounds in South America.
BELIZE HABITAT - Fallow fields, weedy areas.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon spring and autumn transient on cayes, regular on mainland; early April to early June and early September to late October.
Interesting Facts

The Bobolink is one of the world’s most impressive songbird migrants, traveling some 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometers) to and from southern South America every year. Throughout its lifetime, it may travel the equivalent of 4 or 5 times around the circumference of the earth.
The species name of the Bobolink, oryzivorus means “rice eating” and refers to this bird’s appetite for rice and other grains, especially during migration and in winter.
A migrating Bobolink can orient itself with the earth’s magnetic field, thanks to iron oxide in bristles of its nasal cavity and in tissues around the olfactory bulb and nerve. Bobolinks also use the starry night sky to guide their travels.
Bobolink molt twice a year, completely changing all their feathers on both the breeding and wintering grounds. When the male grows new feathers on the wintering grounds they all have yellowish tips, so he still looks like a nonbreeding bird. Eventually the pale tips wear off to reveal his striking black-and-white breeding colors.
Normally a daylight forager, the Bobolink sometimes feeds after dark on bright nights during migration, to build fat reserves for its long flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
Bobolinks are related to blackbirds, which are often polygynous, meaning that males may have several mates per breeding season. Bobolinks are polygynous, too—but they’re also often polyandrous: each clutch of eggs laid by a single female may have multiple fathers.
The oldest Bobolink on record was a female known to be at least 9 years old.
The Bobolink was immortalized by nineteenth-century American poet William Cullen Bryant, in a poem titled Robert of Lincoln. The poem recounts the events of “Bob-o-‘Link’s” nesting season, describing the male’s flashy coat and song, the female’s modest attire and subdued voice, and the six purple-flecked eggs that hatch into nestlings.

Red-Winged Blackbird

Red Winged Blackbird

Red Winged Blackbird - Males are black with red shoulder patch that is sometimes concealed. Males have rusty feather edges in the winter. Females are streaked brown and often confused with sparrows. Look for long, sharply pointed bill. Often in flocks, especially in winter. Visits feeders. Breeds in marshes and scrubby, wet fields. Distinctive song, especially as migrants arrive in early spring.
BELIZE HABITAT - For nesting, freshwater marshes; for foraging, fallow fields, recently plowed agricultural land, pastures.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common resident on mainland south and west to central Orange Walk, northeast Cayo, and south Belize, occasionally or locally to central Cayo and northeast Stann Creek.
Interesting Facts

Different populations and subspecies of Red-winged Blackbirds vary markedly in size and proportions. An experiment was conducted that moved nestlings between populations and found that the chicks grew up to resemble their foster parents. This study indicated that much of the difference seen between populations is the result of different environments rather than different genetic makeups.
The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, meaning males have many female mates – up to 15 in some cases. In some populations 90 percent of territorial males have more than one female nesting on their territories. But all is not as it seems: one-quarter to one-half of nestlings turn out to have been sired by someone other than the territorial male.
Male Red-winged Blackbirds fiercely defend their territories during the breeding season, spending more than a quarter of daylight hours in territory defense. He chases other males out of the territory and attacks nest predators, sometimes going after much larger animals, including horses and people.
Red-winged Blackbirds roost in flocks in all months of the year. In summer small numbers roost in the wetlands where the birds breed. Winter flocks can be congregations of several million birds, including other blackbird species and starlings. Each morning the roosts spread out, traveling as far as 50 miles to feed, then re-forming at night.

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern Meadowlark - Streaked brown above with distinctive black "V" on breast and yellow below. In flight, short wings and spiky tail with white outer edges apparent. Bill is as long as the head and pointy. Beautiful song rings throughout grasslands in summer. Duller plumage in winter, blending into grasses even more. Similar to Western Meadowlark. Where ranges overlap in summer, listen for different song and look for mostly white malar (less yellow on throat) on Eastern. In winter, Eastern is more likely to be alone, rather than in a flock, and favors more extensive, pristine grasslands than Western. Eastern also has bolder, more contrasting head pattern.
BELIZE HABITAT - Savannas, farmland, mowed fields.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common resident in lowlands on mainland from north Orange Walk and north Belize west to central Orange Walk and north Cayo and south through east Stann Creek to northeast Toledo. Apparently unrecorded from Corozal.
Interesting Facts

The Eastern Meadowlark is not in the lark family (Alaudidae)—it’s a member of the blackbird family (Icteridae), which also includes cowbirds and orioles.
A male Eastern Meadowlark typically has two mates at a time, rarely three.
Taxonomists recognize up to 17 subspecies of Eastern Meadowlark, including one isolated population in the Southwest known as the Lillian’s Meadowlark, which lives well within the range of the Western Meadowlark.
Although Eastern and Western Meadowlarks are nearly identical, the two species hybridize only very rarely. Mixed pairs usually occur only at the edge of the range where few mates are available.
Where Eastern and Western meadowlark ranges overlap in the central U.S., the two species refuse to share territories. Their songs sound totally different to each other, like a foreign language, so singing doesn’t always do the job of communicating territorial boundaries. Instead, the two species are likely to fight for territorial supremacy.
An Eastern Meadowlark male can sing several different variations of its song. In New York, the songs from one male were analyzed using spectrograms; the bird sang more than 100 different patterns of song.

Chestnut-Headed Oropendola

Chestnut Headed Oropendola

Chestunut Headed Oropendola - Rather large, dark, yellow-tailed bird of humid evergreen forest and edge in tropical lowlands. Where present, colonies of large pendulous nests adorn tall trees. Often in flocks, usually in forest canopy at fruiting trees. Male is much larger than female, but sexes look similar, with a dark, rich brown head and body, blackish upperparts, pale yellowish bill, and bold yellow tail sides. Flight much quicker than larger Montezuma Oropendola, with deep, rather swooping wingbeats that produce a rushing sound.
BELIZE HABITAT - For nesting, canopy of large trees in broadleaf forest clearings and open areas near forest. At other times, canopy of broadleaf forest interior.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Local and generally uncommon resident in south and west Toledo, west Stann Creek and south Cayo.

Montezuma Oropendola

Montezuma Oropendola - Spectacular, very large ‘blackbird’ of tropical lowlands. Favors forest edge, open woodland, plantations, semi-open areas with trees; colonies of large pendulous nests adorn tall trees. Male is much larger than female, but sexes look similar: dark rusty overall with a black head, bold yellow sides to the tail, and ornate face and bill patterning. Flies rather directly, with slow, ‘rowing’ wingbeats. Memorable gurgling song sounds like water poured from a bottle.
BELIZE HABITAT - For nesting, canopy of isolated trees (typically the cotton tree, Ceiba pentandra). Otherwise, canoy and sub-canopy of most broadleaf forest interior and edge, relatively open areas with scattered large trees. Frequents fruiting trees.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common resident on mainland nearly throughout, but local and somewhat seasonal in northeast. Has nested on Ambergris Caye.

Great-Tailed Grackle

Great Tailed Grackle

Great Tailed Grackle - Large, lanky blackbird with flat crown and long tail. Males have ridiculously long tails, almost as long as their body, often held in a V-shape. Males are glossy black. Females are brown with paler eyebrow and throat. Eyes yellow to white; dusky for immatures. In coastal Texas, where its range overlaps with Boat-tailed Grackle, note habitat (more generalized as opposed to strictly saltmarsh) and pale eye (not brown).
BELIZE HABITAT - Nearly all open areas, including rice fields, pastureland, and plowed fields; less common in wooded habitats such as open pine forest and mangroves.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Very common resident throughout, including all inhabited and many uninhabited cayes. Colonized both Belmopan Cayo and Gallon Jug Orange Walk shortly after they were established deep within continuous rainforest, and colonized remote cayes following the arrival of humans.
Interesting Facts

In winter, enormous flocks of both male and female Great-tailed Grackles gather in “roost trees.” These winter roosts can contain thousands of individuals, with flocks of up to half a million occurring in sugarcane fields in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.
In 1900 the northern edge of the Great-tailed Grackle’s range barely reached southern Texas. Since the 1960s they’ve followed the spread of irrigated agriculture and urban development into the Great Plains and West, and today are one of North America’s fastest-expanding species.
Because they’re smaller and require less food, female Great-tailed Grackle chicks are more likely than their brothers to survive to fledging. Likewise, adult females may outlive males, resulting in a “sex-biased” population with greater numbers of females than males.
Although you’ll usually see them feeding on land, Great-tailed Grackles may also wade into the water to grab a frog or fish.
Great-tailed Grackles—especially females—learn to recognize individual researchers working in their breeding colonies, and will react with a chut alarm call when they see the researcher, even away from the nesting site.
The Great-tailed and Boat-tailed grackles have at times been considered the same species. Current thinking is that they are closely related, but different species.

Melodious Blackbird

Melodious Blackbird - Fairly common in semi-open habitats of tropical lowlands, usually in pairs or small groups. Feeds on the ground and in trees, often flipping its tail sharply upwards; may associate loosely with grackles, but usually not mixed in with other blackbids. Distinctive but lacks obvious field marks: plumage is wholly black with a slight velvety sheen; note the sharply pointed bill, and dark eyes.
BELIZE HABITAT - Ground to canopy; most open areas with scattered trees, forest edge, clearings within forest interior. Forages occasionally in fields away from trees.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common to very common resident on mainland; also recorded from Ambergris Caye but possibly not resident.

Yellow-Billed Cacique

Yellow Billed Cacique

Yellow Billed Cacique - Retiring blackbird of thickets and tangles. Heard much more often than seen, as pairs keep in touch with ‘question and answer calling.’ Creeps methodically in vines and tangles, and most frequently seen as it flies low across a trail or quiet road, usually with one member of the pair following shortly after the other. Note the pale ivory-yellow bill and staring yellow eyes, often striking even with a quick flight view.
BELIZE HABITAT - Understory; broadleaf and pine forest interior and edge, second growth scrub.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common resident on mainland and Ambergris Caye.

Bronzed Cowbird

Bronzed Cowbird - Dark brown to matte black; males with iridescent bluish wings. Thick neck and heavy bill. Look for vampire-like staring red eye. Males have an incredible display where they puff out a mane of neck feathers and hover in a circle above the female. Found in a variety of open or semi-open areas, including pastures, forest edge, yards, and agricultural areas. Visits feeders. Often in flocks, sometimes with other blackbirds.
BELIZE HABITAT - Fallow fields, pastureland and agricultural fields, brush and second growth, open areas with scattered trees.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common resident in Corozal, north Belize and Ambergris Caye, less common south in interior to west Toledo; more widespread in winter. Formerly only a winter visitor; first documented nesting in Belize in 1968 at Rockstone Pond (Altun Ha) Belize.
Interesting Facts

The Bronzed Cowbird expanded its range during the twentieth century, especially since the 1950s.
Both Brown-headed and Bronzed Cowbirds have expanded their ranges recently, and the two species now overlap extensively. Competition for host nests has been one result. Bronzed Cowbirds tend to lay eggs in the nests of larger species than the Brown-headed does—but people have reported many host nests containing the eggs of both cowbird species.
Many species of songbird that are regular hosts to Bronzed Cowbird eggs attack the cowbirds when they are near their nest, which suggests that they perceive the cowbird as a threat to the nest. Couch’s Kingbirds, Hooded Orioles, and Northern Mockingbirds are especially aggressive toward Bronzed Cowbirds.
At least 101 species of songbirds have been known to host Bronzed Cowbird eggs in their nests. These range in size from the small Golden-cheeked Warbler to the sizeable Green Jay.
Bronzed Cowbirds often parasitize the nests of orioles. Birders have noticed that the sound of an oriole singing in the springtime often brings in both male and female Bronzed Cowbirds.
The record for the number of Bronzed Cowbird eggs found in a single nest is 17.

Giant Cowbird

Giant Cowbird - Rather large blackbird of tropical lowlands; male is much larger than female. Found in forest edges, pastures, orchards, and open grassy areas along rivers; often in small groups. In breeding season, hangs around oropendola colonies, where it lays its eggs in oropendola nests and relies on them to raise its offspring. Thick neck accentuates small head with very stout, pointed bill. Flight is strong and fairly direct, with distinctive flap-flap-flap-glide progression. Eye color varies: red in Mexico and Central America, yellowish in parts of South America.
BELIZE HABITAT - Nests in oropendola colonies in open areas with isolated large trees. Forages in plowed fields and other fields with sparse or low herbaceous vegetation.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon to locally common resident on mainland north to central Orange Walk and north Belize; occasionally or locally to north Orange Walk and possibly south Corozal.