A what?

This is a Dickcissel. It’s a very colorful, small bird that migrates into my area to breed in summer. They are known to make their living in alfalfa or clover fields. I suppose any grass pasture will do, since we have many of these little fellows (and their less colorful, but still yellow tinged mates) around the property.

I learned to recognize them because they would follow me as I moved along hedgerows – flying from the top of one tree to the next. As soon as the bird landed, it would begin belting out its song which is quite raspy, and tends to be three syllables long (like its name.) By the end of the summer, rather than saying “Oh! There’s a bird up at the top of that tree, I should take a photo,” I ended up saying, “Oh, it’s just a Dickcissel.” One day, perhaps, I will be able to recognize most of the birds with such familiarity.

This last photo is interesting. I was camped out near Nest box #26 filming the Bluebird feeding her chicks, when I spotted a bit of yellow about 300 feet away, in a tree. I took a few photos assuming it was probably a bird (but sometimes it’s a flower, a dying leaf or even a piece of light trash that had blown in during a storm. It turned out to be a Bobolink (a new bird for me – as of just a few days ago.) But, also there was a Dickcissel in the tree. They were both belting out their songs.