Bobolink Song

The male sings a metallic bubbly rambling song with a mixture of sharp high notes and buzzy low pitches.
Bobolink song. Tim spahr scott heron. Added to this are the male s rich straw colored patch on the head and his bubbling virtuosic song. Perched on a grass stem or displaying in flight over a field breeding male bobolinks are striking. The male is unmistakable in spring finery but before fall migration he molts into a striped brown appearance like that of the female.
The closer urban structures were the more decreased the peak frequency was. Bobolink song may in the future be influenced by nearby noise and structures. Bobolink call song call male song. A study done on chipping sparrows another grassland bird has found that noise urban structures and vegetation have each influenced the structure of chipping sparrow song job 2016.
No other north american bird has a white back and black underparts some have described this look as wearing a tuxedo backwards. Each male has 2 song types each composed of 25 50 notes in a fixed sequence lasting about 3 5. This video celebrates the amazing song of the bobolink described by one author as a mad wreckless song fantasia an outbreak of pentup irrepressible glee. Other blackbirds meadowlarks cowbirds.
The male bobolink often sings this song while flying in a peculiar helicopter like pattern moving slowly with his wings fluttering rapidly. As summer ends he molts into a buff and brown female like plumage. Fluttering over meadows and hayfields in summer the male bobolink delivers a bubbling tinkling song which loosely interpreted gives the species its name. Bobolinks in this plumage were once known as ricebirds in the south where they occasionally used to.