Yellow-headed Blackbird

How to find it

Look through mixed blackbird flocks in open country if you hope for a stray. The Coto 47 bird was with Bronzed and Shiny Cowbirds and grackles, so flocks like those are the place to scan. Go through them bird by bird, checking each for yellow on the head. Rare birds in Costa Rica turn up in any month, but a local bird guide says November and December seem best for lost birds, and local birders who take photos are usually the ones who find them. If a stray is reported, return to the exact spot where it was seen, using directions from the finders, as happened at Coto 47.

How to recognise it

These marks describe the species in general.

Adult male: black, with a yellow head and breast. He has a white wing patch that may show only in flight, so a perched bird can look like a black body with a golden hood.

Female: mainly brown, with a dull yellow throat and breast.

Young birds: much like females, so a brown blackbird with a hint of yellow at the throat deserves a second look.

The yellow head makes the male easy to identify. Females and young birds are the harder case, and they are the ones to check carefully in a mixed flock.

What it sounds like

Recording: Sean Frey, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Outside the nesting season it often feeds in flocks with other blackbirds. It eats mostly seeds and insects, and sometimes catches insects in flight.

That flocking habit matters for anyone hoping to find a stray. The Coto 47 bird was seen with Bronzed and Shiny Cowbirds and grackles. It stayed for a second day and seemed at ease.

Where it lives

Across its range it breeds in freshwater marshes with cattail and bulrush. In migration and winter it also uses open farmland, pastures and fields.

In Costa Rica the dated mainland record came from Coto 47, near Ciudad Neilly in Puntarenas province, in the Coto marshes near the southern border. The National Museum of Costa Rica also lists the species among accidental or uncertain birds in the Greater Metropolitan Area around San José, where sightings are scarce and no migration pattern is known.

When to see it

The best documented Costa Rican record is from late October (25 October 2014). The committee's notes give no other dated months, so no season can be called typical.

Similar birds

The male is easy to separate, since other blackbirds in its mixed flocks lack yellow on the head. Odd blackbirds still deserve care. In the same 2014 search at Coto 47, a bird first thought to be a Bobolink turned out to be a female Red-breasted Blackbird, a call made by the AOCR rare bird committee.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The official Costa Rican Spanish name is Tordo Cabecidorado. Other Spanish names include Tordo Cabeciamarillo, Tordo Cabecigualdo, Tordo Cabeza Amarilla and Turpial de Cabeza Amarilla.

Status and conservation

Status A on the AOCR list means accidental, and the 2025-2026 official list, updated June 2026, still gives it that status.

Photography tips

The Coto 47 blackbird stayed for a second day and seemed at ease. It was relocated by returning to the spot where it had been seen, using directions from the birders who found it.