Bobolinks summer in Oregon's eastern grasslands and meadows, singing what has been described as a bubbling delirium of ecstatic music that flows from the throat of the bird like sparkling champagne. The yellow-brown female, juvenile or non-breeding male may at first appear to be a sparrow, but the breeding male has an astonishing and diagnostic backwards tuxedo pattern of buff on the nape and white rump and scapulars on an otherwise black body.

The Bobolink is a regular, locally common breeder at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and a few scattered pairs occur in northeast Oregon. West of the Cascades, some rare spring and summer records include singing males in the Willamette Valley in Marion and Lane counties. They are also casual visitants on the coast in fall.

The Bobolink is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species in both the Blue Mountains and the Northern Basin and Range ecoregions.

Hear the song of the Bobolink

Photo by Scott Heron, Flickr