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The Bobolink
The Bobolink, Dolichonyx oryaivorus, also called the rice bird or rice bunting, is yet another migrating songbird that has declined in population over the last fifty years.
Photo: Bobolink, Calvin Borgmann/Audubon Photography Awards
Evelyn Novins
The Bobolink, Dolichonyx oryaivorus, also called the rice bird or rice bunting, is yet another migrating songbird that has declined in population over the last fifty years. People have trapped and sold them as pets in South America, collected them as food in Jamaica and shot them in the US as agricultural pests. The primary reason for the species’ decline, however, is changes in land use, particularly the disappearance of useful habitat in many areas of its historic range.
The Bobolink, as a ground-nesting bird, looks for large areas dominated by grasses without woody plants or trees. With the loss of prairie land due to development and agriculture, the Bobolink has adjusted to smaller, often flower-rich open meadows and hayfields. In urbanizing areas, of course, that kind of habitat also is disappearing.
The threats are not news to most birdwatchers, but before going into too much detail on the dire circumstances (and some hopeful moves toward conservation), let’s look at the special bird in question.
The Bobolink is a seed-eater. It passes through northern Virginia in migration, breeds in more northern North America and winters in South America. During their long migration, mostly through Florida and the West Indies although a few migrate through Mexico and Central America, they stop in marshes and rice and other grain fields. In years past when the Bobolink was very abundant, flocks of birds might strip rice fields of seeds, behavior that gave it its common rice bird or rice bunting name and its scientific name “orvaivorus”, which means rice-eater. Once considered a pest, hunting the bird was a common practice.
Although John James Audubon’s Birds of America was limited to the plates, a separate, companion publication written by Audubon and Scottish naturalist and ornithologist William MacGillivray provides observations on the birds’ migration as well as the damage they caused to crops along the way. See the text for Audubon’s Plate 54, the Rice Bird. It’s interesting to compare their observations with the information in current field guides.
Male Bobolink in breeding plumage, Calvin Borgmann/Audubon Photography Awards
The breeding male Bobolink is easily identified by his stunning black and white “reverse tuxedo” plumage (black below with white above) and his straw-colored nape. The nonbreeding male and female have a yellow/buffy nape and bold, brown stripes on the wings. The breeding female is paler. Many birders, however, recognize the bird by its bubbly call, which some say gave it its name, that is, they hear “Bob O’Lincoln” as part of the song. Listen to the recording on the American Bird Conservancy's website to see if you can hear the name.
Bobolink with nonbreeding plumage, Matt Felperin
After migrating in the spring, the males arrive in the breeding ground first. Females arrive later, choosing a nest site within a male’s territory. The female scratches a depression in the soil and then builds an outer wall of dead grass and weed stems. She lines the inside of the nest with fine grasses and sedges placed directly on the soil about 2-1/2 inches deep and 2 inches across for a clutch of 3-7 eggs.
Bobolinks are truly social birds. Males mate with several females per breeding season and the eggs in a female’s clutch may represent multiple fathers. Both parents feed the young, and families from several nests form forage flocks. The adults eat seeds, but the nestlings are fed invertebrates exclusively. The young leave the nest unable to fly and hide in the underbrush until their flight feathers emerge fully. Outside the nesting season Bobolinks continue to flock, and the males molt adopting a drabber plumage as they begin their migration to the South American wintering ground. The males molt again on their wintering ground.
The 2025 State of the Birds report lists the Bobolink as an Orange Alert Tipping Point species, a classification that means it has lost more than 50% of its population in the last 50 years, and its decline has accelerated in the past 10 years. The US Geological Survey’s North American Breeding Bird Survey indicates that grassland bird populations have fallen 53%, and Partners in Flight also acknowledges the imperiled status of the Bobolink.
Conservation efforts focus on maintaining the birds’ breeding ground by refraining from mowing fields until after the young have fledged. Using prescribed burns in natural prairie habitat also prevents encroachments by trees and other woody plants. Locally, Fairfax County has implemented a timed mowing schedule at several capped mounds at the I-95 Landfill Complex. Birders spotted Boblinks there this spring as they made their way north to breed. Because of the dearth of natural, open meadows in an urbanizing area like northern Virginia, managing landfills for these (and other) imperiled birds may be the birds’ best chance for finding a resting and feeding stop on their migrations.
July-August Bird of the Month
With more than 1100 song variations – some believe that number can be closer to 3000 – the Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) has one of the largest song repertoires of all songbirds. It even beats out the Northern Mockingbird, which can sing up to 200 different songs.
Photo: Brown Thrasher, Peter Waksmundzki/Audubon Photography Awards
It’s Easier to Distinguish a Brown Thrasher from a Northern Mockingbird Than You Think
Jessica Bigger
With more than 1100 song variations – some believe that number can be closer to 3000 – the Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) has one of the largest song repertoires of all songbirds. It even beats out the Northern Mockingbird, which can sing up to 200 different songs. Although their songs can be difficult to distinguish from a Northern Mockingbird’s, the easiest way to tell the two birds apart is to listen to their song phrases. Thrashers only repeat their phrases twice, while mockingbirds repeat their phrases three or more times.
Thrashers also sing with gusto, yet some birders do not understand their singing ability. Cornell mentioned on All About Birds that, “One early naturalist thought the Brown Thrasher’s song was underappreciated, writing “Much of the [acclaim] which has fallen to the Mockingbird is really due to the unperceived efforts of the Brown Thrasher. It is the opinion of many ornithologists that the song… is richer, fuller, and definitely more melodious than that of polyglottis’ (the Northern Mockingbird).
You may be able to hear thrashers in the spring, but they are quite elusive. They nest in thickets, hedgerows and forest edges, but males will fly up to higher branches in trees to sing. You might get a glimpse of them when they come down to forage in the leaf litter, chattering away while searching for food. If you spot one it might give you a scathing look, with its curved bill (frown) and its glaring yellow eyes.
Brown Thrasher, Peter Waksmundzki/Audubon Photography Awards
In Gillian Field’s article in the Herald Times, she wrote about creating habitat to attract a variety of songbirds. Fields had an infestation of vinca minor in her yard. So, she rolled up her sleeves and ripped out every last vine. She replaced the vines with a thick layer of leaves and laid several sticks on top to prevent the leaves from blowing away. To her surprise-two days later-a Brown Thrasher came bopping around her leaf litter, happily chattering away while searching for food.
Some passerines, including the Brown Thrasher, will shed feathers on the underside of their body – known as an “incubation patch.” With their skin feathers free, these birds are able to use their body heat to keep their eggs warm. Feathers would impede this process. Both female and male Brown Thrashers have this patch during the breeding season, as they both share nesting duties.
Thrashers eat both insects and seeds. They also eat fruits, nuts and arthropods. Interestingly, they love acorns. They grab these large nuts in their bill and whack them on the ground to crack the nuts into more manageable pieces.
Brown Thrashers live year-round in the southeastern part of the U.S., but we are blessed to see them in spring and summer as they migrate to Northern Virginia and other eastern states to breed. Although considered a bird of low concern on All About Birds, the Brown Thrasher is considered a vulnerable species according to the National Audubon Society.
Climate change is shifting the Brown Thrasher’s range further north. They are common in Georgia – they are the state bird – but as temperatures rise, the environment is becoming unsuitable for this mimicking species. They’re not the only birds feeling the effects of climate change.
As the earth continues to warm, most of the Brown Thrasher’s current habitat in the U.S., both breeding and nonbreeding, will be lost. The species will be forced to move farther up into Canada. Spring heat waves and heavy rains (which can flood their nests) can endanger nestlings. They are also quite susceptible to nesting parasites, like the Brown Cowbird.
However, there is still hope. Reducing global temperatures, even now, would greatly reduce the chances of a major decline in all bird populations.
June Bird of the Month
One of most impressive songbirds to pass through Northern Virginia during migration is the Bobolink, Dolichonyx oryzivorus.
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/