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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Bobolink

Dolichonyx oryzivorus

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Near Threatened

Migrates 12,000 miles a year to summer in your hayfield. Sings like R2-D2 having an idea.

Population

~10 million mature individuals (Partners in Flight 2020 estimate), declining at >1.5%/year (1966-2015 BBS trend)

Habitat

Open grasslands, hayfields, and tallgrass/mixed-grass prairie remnants for breeding; rice fields, marshes, and grassy wetlands during migration and winter

Fun fact

Breeding male Bobolinks wear their tuxedo backwards — black underparts with a pale straw-colored nape and white scapulars/back/rump — and the species is the only North American land bird known to regularly migrate through the Galápagos Islands, over 1,000 miles off its main route (Darwin collected a specimen there in 1835).

Range

Breeds across southern Canada and the northern United States (upper Midwest to the Canadian Maritimes and Northeast); migrates one of the longest routes of any songbird (~12,000-12,500 miles round trip, including a documented detour through the Galápagos) to winter in grasslands of southern South America, chiefly Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia

Diet

Seeds, grains (notably rice, reflected in the species name oryzivorus), and insects, including agricultural pests such as armyworms (earning it the nickname "armyworm bird")

Size

0.18 m

Wingspan

0.27 m

Lifespan

9 years