a black ink drawing of a male bobolink with his back facing the viewer looking over his left shoulder

another bird that’s so pretty yet continues to elude me when I go looking for it
#bobolink #birddrawing #sketchbook #wildlifeart #pendrawing #animaldrawing #inkdrawing

A brown bird with a yellow belly is sitting on top of some goldenrod in a meadow. This is a female Bobolink. They breed in this hay meadow near Lake Placid in upstate New York. Bobolinks arrive on their breeding grounds in our part of the Adirondacks in early May. They leave for their long trip south in the last half of August.

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Migratory birds, I offer this attractive #Bobolink that travels 6,000 miles from South America to upstate New York. wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-b...

#eastcoastkin #Adirondacks #AdirondackBirds #birding #AdirondackBirding #birds #wildlife #AdirondackMountains #ECK

Bobolink -- Scott Carpenter Photography

#Photography #Photographs #Pictures #Photos #Animals #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Birds #Bobolink

Bobolink -- M. Leonard Photography

#Photography #Photographs #Pictures #Photos #Animals #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Birds #Bobolink

A very dapper black bird with white back, black underparts, and a yellow patch on the nape is sitting on the top of a fence post. This is one of the Bobolinks who breed on the hay meadows at Heaven Hill Farm near Lake Placid in upstate New York. Bobolinks winter in southern South America every year. They return to our part of the Adirondack Mountains in May.

For the #birdoftheday theme #sideprofiles, I offer a handsome male #Bobolink, sitting pretty in a hay meadow near Lake Placid, New York (13 July 2025). wildadirondacks.org/heaven-hill-...

#birds #eastcoastkin #Adirondacks #AdirondackMountains #AdirondackBirds #HeavenHilltrails #birding

A brown bird with a yellowish, unstreaked breast is clinging to some vegetation in a field. It’s a female or juvenile Bobolink. Bobolinks are relatively rare in the Adirondacks. They are grassland birds, and we don’t have a lot of grassland. The Adirondack Park in upstate New York is heavily forested. Almost all of the farmland that was in use for agriculture sixty or seventy years ago has reverted to forest, which leaves limited suitable habitat for Bobolinks. The Bobolinks on this particular field are thriving, because it is a managed field, which is regularly mowed, but the mowing is timed until after the fledglings are fully mobile.

For the #birdoftheday theme #nobranch, I offer a #Bobolink hunkered down in the vegetation on a hay meadow. Heaven Hill, Lake Placid, NY (8 August 2025). wildadirondacks.org/heaven-hill-...

#birds #adirondacks #adirondackmountains

Looking forward to the return of spring birds, like this Bobolink who travels all the way from Argentina. Argentinians never see this bold breeding plumage, but only their drab winter colors.
#bobolink #birding #birdingphotography #BirdPhotography

A female Bobolink perched on a thin plant stem.

Taxonomy vs. Eyesight. 👀

My eyes: "That is a Meadowlark missing its necklace."
Science: "That is a Blackbird."
The Bird: "I am just trying to eat this seed."

The female Bobolink: The most confusing member of the Blackbird family tree.

#birds #bobolink #femalebirds #nature #wildlifephotography

A breeding male Bobolink with feathers that are mostly black with a white back and rump, and a rich buffy nape. This one was perched on some fence wire against a background of bright green spring grass, with some sprigs of yellow grass around him Bobolinks are members of the blackbird family. I saw this one and several others during their mating season at Daniel Webster W.S. in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Today's #BOTD theme is birds singing or calling. This male #Bobolink in breeding plumage was looking for a mate and singing away! (Marshfield, Mass. - 5/14/25) 😍💚

#birds #blackbirds #BirdOfTheDay #singing #EastCoastKin #BirdPhotography #NikonP950 #Massachusetts
@alan678.bsky.social

A male Bobolink with a golden nape patch perched peacefully on a tall stalk of grass.

And now, a moment of peace. 🌾

After witnessing that Eastern Bluebird eviction, we interrupt our regular programming for a Bobolink just minding his own business.

No turf wars, no biting, no drama - just a bird balancing on a blade of grass. Nature isn't always a battlefield!

#birds #bobolink

Episode 467: The Dragon Bird and Friends https://media.blubrry.com/strangeanimalspodcast/content.blubrry.com/strangeanimalspodcast/birds_and_reptiles.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:07 — 11.4MB) Subscribe: RSS | More Thanks to Audie, Katie, Eilee, Emily, Maryjane, and Dylan for their suggestions this week! Sorry this episode is late–the site was down. 🙁 **Further reading:** Bobolinks A frill-neck lizard showing off: A bobolink: The great-eared nightjar [picture by Venkata Shreeram Mallimadugula, taken from this site]: __ Another great-eared nightjar [Picture by Nigel Voaden from UK – Great Eared-Nightjar, Tangkoko, Sulawesi, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39857392]: **Show transcript:** Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This week we have an episode about some birds and reptiles. Thanks to Audie, Katie, Eilee, Emily, Maryjane, and Dylan for their suggestions! If this episode showed up later than usual in the podcast feed, it’s because I’ve been having trouble with the website and couldn’t get it uploaded until it was fixed. We’ll kick off the episode with an animal that can’t kick, because snakes don’t have any legs. Audie suggested we learn about the scaleless rat snake, which means that first we have to learn about the rat snake, the ordinary one with scales. Rat snakes are constrictors and are common throughout many parts of Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, and they’re called rat snakes because they eat rats and other small animals like lizards, frogs, and baby birds. Rat snakes are popular pets because they’re so pretty and they aren’t dangerous to humans. Different species are different colors and patterns, and the rhinoceros rat snake, also called the Vietnamese longnose snake, even has a little hornlike projection on the tip of its nose that points forward. I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about that particular rat snake before on the podcast, but I can’t look up which episode because the website is down. Most rat snakes don’t grow much bigger than 5 feet long, or 1.5 meters, but a few species can get longer than that. The black rat snake, which lives in North America, can grow over 8 feet long, or more than 2.5 meters. It’s black with small white markings on the head, but snakes bred for sale as pets are sometimes white all over or partially white, or even albino, meaning an individual has a mutation where its body doesn’t produce pigment. Pet black rat snakes are also bred that don’t have scales. That brings us to the scaleless rat snake. It’s an ordinary rat snake but it has a mutation that causes it to have very few scales. This is a mutation that happens occasionally in the wild since it’s a recessive trait, and while it can make the snake a little more vulnerable to injury, scaleless snakes can survive just fine in the wild. They do have belly scales like a normal snake, which are the ones that allow them to move around, and they may have a scattering of scales on other parts of the body too. A scaleless snake still sheds its skin once a year like an ordinary snake, since it’s actually the outer layer of skin that sheds along with the scales. Scaleless rat snakes are popular as pets because they’re so soft and because their coloration is usually very bright. A snake’s coloration comes from pigments in its skin. A snake’s scales are actually transparent, so without a layer of scales, a scaleless snake looks even more colorful than a regular snake. Many species of snake have been found in the wild that are scaleless, but it seems to be a little more common in rat snakes. Next, Dylan and Emily wanted to learn about the frill-neck lizard, which is found in northern Australia and the very southern part of New Guinea. It’s a big lizard that can grow almost three feet long, or 90 cm, including its incredibly long tail. Males are larger than females on average, with a bigger frill. The frill is a flap of skin around the head and neck, and most of the time it’s folded back over the neck and shoulders so it’s not that noticeable. The lizard is pretty ordinary-looking that way, just a big gray or brown animal with a big head. But when the lizard feels threatened, or if it comes across another frill-neck lizard, it can extend the frill by moving the small bones and cartilage that act as struts, which also requires the lizard to open its mouth. When extended, the frill is as much as a foot across, or 30 cm, and it’s marked with bright colors. Different individuals have different colored frills, red, orange, yellow, or white, or a mixture of colors and patterns. The size and color of the frill opening up so quickly will often startle a potential predator, allowing the lizard to escape. The frill-neck lizard can even run on two legs if it needs to, although it has to run with its head pointing straight up in the air. The frill-neck lizard mostly eats insects, especially termites. It spends most of its time in trees and some people believe it can use its frill as a parachute, but that doesn’t actually seem to be the case. Let’s move on to a few birds next. Maryjane suggested we learn about the bobolink, a type of blackbird native to the Americas. In summer the male bobolink is black with a pale yellow nape and white markings, and in winter he molts into a drab outfit of brown to help him hide. The female is brown with black streaks and stripes. In the summer the bobolink flies to the northern United States and Canada to nest and raise babies, and it migrates to southern South America in winter. This is a huge distance for such a little songbird to travel, but it’s a strong flyer and can travel over a thousand miles, or 1,800 km, in a single day. It navigates using the stars at night and can sense the earth’s magnetic field too, which helps it find its way. The bobolink prefers prairies and grassy areas. It eats seeds and insects, and especially likes rice and a type of caterpillar called the armyworm. It’s sometimes considered a pest because it eats so much rice, but then again armyworms are also considered pests and the bobolink eats so many of them that it has probably saved a lot of crops that way. While the bobolink is still numerous, its numbers have been in decline for years due to habitat loss. The bobolink is most famous for its song. Both males and females sing, and males not only sing while perched, they sing while flying. The bobolink’s songs are varied and lovely. This is what the bobolink sounds like, first a song recorded while the bird was flying: [bobolink song] And here’s another song recorded while a different bird in a different place was perched and singing: [bobolink song] Finally, both Katie and Eilee wanted to learn about the great-eared nightjar, also called the dragon bird or the baby dragon. Nightjars are nocturnal birds, and the great-eared nightjar is found in parts of southern and Southeast Asia. It can grow up to 16 inches long, or 41 cm, and is a chonky bird with big dark eyes and a broad bill that can open very wide. The “ears” in its name are tufts of feathers on the top of its head that look like ears or little horns. It can raise the ears if it wants to, but most of the time they just stick out backwards. Like other nightjars, the great-eared nightjar’s head looks flattened most of the time, and the bird itself spends a lot of time crouched down looking like a very flat bird, but then it sits up and pricks up its ear tufts, and it looks more like a thin owl with a long tail. The bird is brown with black markings, which makes it almost invisible at night. During the day, the great-eared nightjar sits in a tree or just on the forest floor, so well camouflaged by its feathers that it blends in with the leaf litter or kind of looks like a piece of stump or broken-off branch. At night it flies around catching insects on the wing like a bat. Instead of building a nest and laying eggs in it like other birds, the great-eared nightjar just lays a single egg among dead leaves on the ground. The egg, and the baby when it hatches, are so well camouflaged that it’s as safe on the ground as it would be in a nest way up in a tree. The great-eared nightjar has an eerie call. This is what it sounds like: [great-eared nightjar call] You can find Strange Animals Podcast at strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net. That’s blueberry without any E’s. If you have questions, comments, corrections, or suggestions, email us at _strangeanimalspodcast@gmail.com_. Thanks for listening!

I forgot @KateShaw had made another wonderfull episode.

strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net/2026/01/12/episode-467-t...

#snakes
#ratsnakes
#rhinocerousRatSnake

A male Bobolink viewed from behind, showing off his distinctive black, white, and gold breeding plumage.

Don't ignore the noisy blackbird flocks! 📢

Bobolinks often travel with their cousins (Grackles & Red-wings), but they rarely follow the dress code. Whether it's this flashy tuxedo or their buffy non-breeding look, they always pop against the sea of dark feathers.

#birds #blackbirds #bobolink

A portrait of a Bobolink on bright blue background. Its body is tan with brown stripes and light orange highlights near its neck. Its head is black with a patch of tan on the back. It has a black beak and round black eyes. Its body is black and its wings are black with white feathers. The Bobolink is outlined with sketchy white lines.

November 28, 2025

Bobolink

Background Paint: Cobalt Blue

#watercolour #watercolor #painting #art #artYear #artSky #rollandpaint #OnlyBeautifulThings #BCBirds #birdArt #bobolink #blackbird

#Birdtober Day 28: Icterid

#Bobolink

#birdtober2025 #illustration #birdtoberclub #birdtoberclub2025 #Inktober #birds

A close up view of a bobolink in profile, looking to the right and singing. He's mostly black, with a yellow cap like a judge's wig, and white on his upper back, like cotton batting.

A Bobolink from this past May, cranking out its R2-D2 like song. #birds #birding #bobolink #BirdOfTheDay

Perched delicately, a #Bobolink sits quietly, still and watchful, his black and gold feathers catching the sunlight. The entire prairie pauses with him in the warm #Minnesota air.

#birds #wildlife #photography #naturephotography #birding #birdphotography #nature

"Grassland birds like the #Bobolink are declining faster than any other group of birds in New England." Read about the Bobolink Project from @massaudubon.org, Audubon Vermont & New Hampshire Audubon, by Lindsey Papasian via @vtdigger.bsky.social: vtdigger.org/2025/08/16/b...
#grasslandbirds

A lovely light yellow and brown bird is perched vegetation in a hay meadow. The bird is buffy brown on top with some dark brown streaks on the back and flanks. The bird has a dark crown with a light central stripe, a light eyebrow, and a dark line behind the eye. The underbelly is a wonderful shade of light yellow.

Bobolink on the hay meadow at Uihlein Foundation’s Heaven Hill Farm, Essex County, NY (17 August 2025). www.uihleinfoundation.org/grassland-bi...

#Bobolink #grasslandbirds #Adirondacks #UihleinFoundation

I was beyond thrilled to observe my first #Bobolink when driving into the forest preserve early in the morning! Given that it is not uncommon in the areas I have haunted, the fact that it took multiple years of looking makes this nemesis completion all the sweeter!

May 2025 in Illinois #birds

She had good taste.

#Bobolink would've been much easier to find around #Amherst in #Dickinson's day.

I don't have a single #SparkBird, but if I did it'd be Bobolinks singing down in the pasture of our farm in #Herkimer County, #NY, about 50 years ago.

xeno-canto.org/453943

A striking black bird with a light yellow cap is sitting on a fence post in the middle of a hay meadow in the Adirondacks

This male Bobolink was looking particularly handsome in the morning sunlight. Bobolink, Uihlein Foundation’s Heaven Hill Farm, Essex County, NY (13 July 2025). www.uihleinfoundation.org/grassland-bi...

#Adirondacks #bobolink #bobolinks #GrasslandBirds

Bobolink. - #Massachusetts.
This well-dressed tiny blackbird breeds in North America and winters in South America!
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#bobolink #blackbirds #bird #birds 🦜🦆🦉

A black bird with a light yellow cap is sitting on a rock in the middle of a hay meadow in the Adirondacks.

Still vocalizing enthusiastically on the Heaven Hill hay meadow! Male Bobolink, Uihlein Foundation’s Heaven Hill Farm, Essex County, NY (5 July 2025). www.uihleinfoundation.org/grassland-bi...

#Adirondacks #bobolink #bobolinks #GrasslandBirds

A lovely light yellow and brown bird is perched on the top of some vegetation in a hay meadow. She has a dark crown with a light central stripe, a light eyebrow, and a dark line behind the eye. Her underbelly is a subtle shade of light yellow. She is carrying food for her young.

The Bobolinks on the Heaven Hill hay meadows are busy feeding their young. The parents will continue feeding until the fledglings are independent. Uihlein Foundation’s Heaven Hill Farm, Essex County, NY (5 July 2025). www.uihleinfoundation.org/grassland-bi... #UihleinFoundation #bobolink #bobolinks

A bobolink on a thick wire, with a blurred out partly cloudy blue sky. He's looking off to the left, showing his yellow crown, and white cotton batten like feathering down the centre of his back

A bobolink on a thick wire, with a blurred out partly cloudy blue sky. He's looking off to the right, showing his yellow crown, and white cotton batten like feathering down the centre of his back

To me, Bobolinks are unusual in that the feathers on their backs are more interesting and beautiful than those on their fronts #birds #birding #bobolink #Algoma #NorthernOntario

Male Bobolink
I’ve been trying to get shots of them out in the open but it hasn’t been easy, it’s fun but not easy #birds #bobolink 🪶

24 juin, Vallée Ruiter, Canton de Potton, nous sommes témoins de la destruction par la faucheuse de 2 nids de Goglus des prés. La Vallée Ruiter a été avisée. Espérerons que le propriétaire du champ coupera plus tard l'an prochain. #goglus #bobolink #oiseaux #birds #potton

Bobolinks are such beautiful and unusual birds that they always seemed kind of like mythological creatures to me. After years of photography trips I finally encountered one. I didn't get a clear photo but I managed to get a short video that includes their incredible call. #birds #birding #bobolink

With his gold skullcap, the male Bobolink perches high on a flowering bush and gazes down pensively.

The front view doesn't show the beautiful patterns on the back of the male Bobolink but you can see a bit of gold striping on his wings. The extent of his skullcap is on display, beginning at the top of his head and extending down to the nape.

A male Bobolink seems to stand guard at the perimeter of his breeding ground. #bobolink #bird #birdphotography #allenspond #birdsofmassachusetts

Male Bobolink
Change of scenery from Fla to upstate NY
#bobolink #knoxfarms #birds 🪶