Tricolored Black bird
By: Sophie H
Why they are endangered
Tricolored Black Birds are on the endangered list because they are losing their habitats. Also, there is more of the Tricolors's predators than needed which results in an overwhelming loss of chicks and eggs. Nesting colonies with over 70,000 nests have been found within the last couple decades. Just two colonies in the Central Valley hold 55 percent of all Tricolored blackbirds in the world.
Protection
To protect themselves, they roost in large groups high up in trees. Some of their predators are black crowned night herons, coyotes, ravens, and raccoons.
Food
They eat mostly eat insects such as grasshoppers, caterpillars, spiders weevils, caddis fly larvae, moth and butterfly larvae, dragonfly larvae, lake shore midges. In the winter, they eat grains and seeds.
Habitat
They live mostly by the California coast. Tricolors normally travel to Washington, Nevada, and Oregon southward to Baja California to breed. They make their home in the California marshes and range-lands. They also like grasslands and seasonal wetlands. During breeding though, you might find them them in cattails and bulrush marshes that are near water. Only the birds that live farther north migrate south for the winter, but the tricolors that live in California stay there permanently.
Cites
http://www.birdinginformation.com/birds/blackbirds-meadowlarks-orioles/tri-colored-blackbird/
http://www.prbo.org/calpif/htmldocs/species/riparian/tricolored_blackbird.htm
http://www.reneethompson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/tricolored_blackbird.jpg
http://www.tringa.org/images/9719_Tricolored_Blackbird_04-11-2010_1.jpg
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/repository/calag/img6202p54b.jpg
http://www.blm.gov/ca/forms/wildlife/details.php?metode=serial_number&search=3013