Today, with the aid of a powerful scope I was able to observe a flock (not counting the females which look much different and more plain) of over forty of these beauties in a field not far from my home.
This bird is called a Bobolink because its song is alleged by some to sound like bob-o-link, although I must say, I don't hear that at all when I listen to them.
Anyway, Bobolinks are a grassland species which nests in the northern U.S. and Canada and are right now passing through my region on their spring trek to their breeding grounds. 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.
A migrating Bobolink can orient itself with the earth’s magnetic field, thanks to iron oxide in bristles in its nasal cavity and in tissues around the olfactory bulb and nerve. Bobolinks also use the stars to help them navigate.
Bobolink males are not only handsome, but their breeding plumage pattern is unique among North American songbirds. No other songbird species has a white back and a black front - a "reverse tuxedo."
Unfortunately, Bobolinks are declining because the hay fields in which they nest are being mowed earlier in the season and more often during the season, an agricultural practice which is fatal to young birds still in the nest.
Here's an interesting four minute video on the bobolink and some of the efforts being made to conserve them in their nesting range.
