Tricolored Blackbird Portal

This is the species account for the tricolored blackbird that appears in the publication "California Bird Species of Special Concern: A ranked assessment of species, subspecies, and distinct populations of birds of immediate conservation concern in California."

This publication should be cited as:

Shuford, W. D. and Gardali, T., editors. 2008. California Bird Species of Special Concern: A ranked assessment of species, subspecies, and distinct populations of birds of immediate conservation concern in California. Studies of Western Birds 1. Western Field Ornithologists, Camarillo, California, and California Department of Fish and Game, Sacramento. This volume is available from Allen Press at the location below.

Thank you to Dave Shuford and Tom Gardali, editors of the California Bird Species of Special Concern, and Ted Beedy, the species account author, for providing the pdf of this document and for permitting us to provide it for download.

This manuscript by Richard W. DeHaven summarizes his work with tricolored blackbirds, reports on a 2000 survey of sites studied during the 1970's, provides perspectives on the dependence upon nesting near dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, and offers suggestions for stabilizing the population of the species.

The report is geographically restricted to the Central Valley and does not consider the needs of the southern California population segment.

This report summarizes the costs and benefits of conserving tricolored blackbird breeding colonies located in grain fields in the San Joaquin Valley from 2005 through 2009. Report prepared by Bob Meese and submitted the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA 95825.

This report documents the results of field work conducted in 2009 by Bob Meese.

This is the final report for the 2005 field season of William J. Hamilton III and Robert J. Meese of the University of California, Davis. This report contains the results of the authors' detection and monitoring efforts, reproductive success estimates, a study of the foraging habits of birds at several colonies, GIS analyses of the landcover types within the foraging radius of breeding birds, and management recommendations.

This report summarizes a field survey of 44 known and potential tricolored blackbird colony locations conducted by Richard A. Erickson, LSA Associates, Horacio de la Cueva, Biologia de la Conservacion, and Mark J. Billings, LSA Associates, in northern Baja California, Mexico from January through August, 2007. Breeding was confirmed at only one of the sites surveyed.

Extreme drought conditions were observed in this region during the survey interval and are believed responsible for depressing prey abundance and resulting in poor reproductive performance in most terrestrial bird species, including the tricolor.

Finding the Perfect Balance, by Stephanie O'Neill, appears in the September - October, 2008 issue of Outdoor California magazine. This article highlights efforts to take a co-operative, non-regulatory approach to conserve the tricolored blackbird.

This is the annual report of Dr. Robert Meese of the Dept. of Environmental Science & Policy at the University of California, Davis and summarizes his field work in detecting, monitoring, and estimating the reproductive success of tricolored blackbird breeding colonies in the Central Valley of California. This report integrates 7 years of field work, provides evidence for insect limitation as among the factors causing the 35% reduction in abundance of tricolors from 2008 to 2011, and provides conservation recommendations that may help to sustain the species.

This report, authored by Rodd Kelsey, Audubon California ecologist and coordinator of the 2008 Statewide Census, summarizes the results of the 2008 census and provides perspectives on population trends as documented in previous statewide censuses dating back to the first census conducted in 1994.

This report summarizes field work conducted by Dr. Robert J. Meese during the 2007 field season, including colony detection, monitoring, descriptions of colony fates, estimates of productivity, color-banding, and conservation recommendations. This report highlights the near-complete reproductive failure of the species in California in 2007. This report was submitted to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Audubon California, who supported the field work.

This report provides a summary of efforts made by Dr. Robert Meese and collaborators in 2010 to trap and band tricolored blackbirds at five sites in the Central Valley, from Kern National Wildlife Refuge in the south to Delevan National Wildlife Refuge in the north, and includes a summary of records of previously banded birds recovered, recaptured, and re-sighted during the field season.

This report provides a summary of the 2007 efforts to trap and band tricolors at three colonies in the Sacramento Valley.

W.J. Hamilton III's annual report from the 2000 Survey.