Family: Icteridae, Blackbirds and Orioles view all from this family
Description 7 1/2-9" (19-23 cm). Similar to Red-winged Blackbird. Male is black but with dark red "epaulets," very broadly margined with white. Female much darker than the brownish-dusky female Red-winged Blackbird and lacks streaks on rump and belly.
Habitat Cattail marshes, marshy meadows, and rangelands.
Nesting 3 or 4 greenish eggs, covered with brown scrawls, in a nest woven onto reed stems or blackberry brambles. It is more colonial than the Red-winged Blackbird, and its territories are crowded, with nests often less than 5 or 6' (1 1/2-2 m) apart. Colonies in California's Central Valley contain thousands of birds.
Range Breeds from southern Oregon southward throughout most of California. Winters north to northern California.
Voice Calls rather similar to those of the Red-wing, but song is more nasal, less musical.
Discussion During the late-summer drought, grasshoppers abound and support the wandering hordes of Tricolored Blackbirds; in winter rice fields and marshes provide food. Until recently, some colonies were estimated to contain one to two million birds; today the total population is down to about 750,000, due to the draining of marshes.
