Yellow-headed Blackbird

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus – April 14, 2014

While regulating my irrigation water yesterday morning, I ran into this happy fellow, the likes of which I’ve never seen before around here. His habits reminded me of a blackbird, but a third larger, and after touring the Internet I finally identified this adult male that I believe is nesting in the nearby cattails bordering a pond. Distribution maps have Central California as a migration area only, breeding, it appears from the maps, on the east side of the Sierra Nevadas, Nevada and Arizona northward. More info HERE A fairly tame and colorful bird compared to our drab natives, I expect to see him again, and perhaps even the female, but next time I’ll have the big lens.