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.