Photo by the Author.
MALE YELLOW HEAD.
Alternating with the last named, and more frequently heard from the depths of the nesting swamp is gur, gurrl; or, as oftenest, yewi(nk), yewi(nk), gur-gurrl. In this phrase the gurrl is drawn out with comical effect, as tho the gallant were down on his knees before some unyielding maiden.
The Yellow-head’s ordinary note of distrust, equivalent to the dink note of the Red-wing, is kluck or koluck’. In flight this becomes almost invariably oo’kluk, oo’kluk.
At rest, again, this is sometimes prolonged into a thrilling passage of resonant “l” notes, probably remonstratory in character. The alarm cry is built upon the same basis, and is uttered with exceeding vehemence, klookoloy, klookoloy, klook ooooo.
Finally, if one may presume to speak finally of so versatile a genius, they have a harsh, rasping note very similar in quality to the scolding note of the Steller Jay, only lighter in weight and a little higher in pitch. This is the note of fierce altercation, or the distress cry in imminent danger. The last time I heard it was in the rank herbage bordering upon a shallow lake in Douglas County. I rushed in to find a big blow-snake coiling just below a nestful of young birds, while the agonized parents and sympathetic neighbors hovered over the spot crying piteously. To stamp upon the reptile was but the work of a moment; and when I dropped the limp ophidian upon the bare ground, all the blackbird population gathered about the carcass, shuddering but exultant, and—perhaps it was only fancy—grateful too.
For all the Yellow-head is so decided in utterance, in disposition he is somewhat phlegmatic, the male bird especially lacking the vivacity which characterizes the agile Brewer Blackbird. Except when hungry, or impelled by passion, he is quite content to mope for hours at a time in the depths of the reeds; and even in nesting time, when his precincts are invaded, he oftener falls to admiring his own plumage in the flooding sunshine than tries to drive off the intruder. Let the homely and distrait female attend to that.
Taken in Douglas County. Photo by W. Leon Dawson.
NEST OF YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD IN TULES.
This bird is essentially a plains-loving species, and its favorite haunts with us are the reedy borders of the treeless lakes, and the upland sloughs of eastern Washington. It is highly gregarious, especially in the fall and early spring, but confesses to about the same degree of domesticity as the Red-wing, in late spring and early summer.
