Tricolored Blackbird Portal

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 report, by Ted Beedy, Susan Sanders, and Debra Bloom comprehensively reviews what was known about tricolored blackbirds up to 1991, summarizing the relevant literature and providing a comprehensive catalog of breeding colonies.

This is the final report, submitted to the California Department of Fish & Game and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, of the field activities of Dr. Robert Meese and provides a summary of the colonies detected, their characteristics and fates, and estimates of the number of young produced by successful colonies.

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.

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 report summarizes a field survey of 26 known and potential tricolored blackbird colony locations conducted by Richard A. Erickson, LSA Associates and Horacio de la Cueva, Biologia de la Conservacion in northern Baja California, Mexico from March to June, 2008. Tricolors were observed at 7 locations and breeding was confirmed at 4 of the sites surveyed.

Extreme drought conditions were observed in 2007 persisted in this region in 2008 and are believed responsible for depressing prey abundance and resulting in poor reproductive performance in most terrestrial bird species, including the tricolor.

This report provides a summary of 2008 efforts to trap and band tricolors at three colonies in the Central Valley, and includes a summary of records of previously banded birds recovered, recaptured, and re-sighted during the field season.