Above: Male Dickcissel, rear view; photo by Peter Taylor.
How do I recognize it?
Imagine an impossible hybrid between a House Sparrow and a Western Meadowlark, and you’ll come up with something like a Dickcissel. Viewed from behind, it looks much like a sparrow, but look for its rusty shoulder patch, long white supercilium (eyebrow), and a touch of yellow on its face. Viewed from the front, the male’s bright yellow breast and black chevron suggest a meadowlark—but the more sparrow-like proportions say otherwise. Females have a splash of paler yellow and little or no black, and juveniles have a streaky breast.
Above: Male Dickcissel, front view; photo by Peter Taylor.
Does it migrate?
The Dickcissel is a long-distance migrant. Its core breeding range is in the central U.S.A., and it winters from southern Mexico to northern South America.
Above: Dickcissel pair on a roadside fence near Whitemouth; photo by Peter Taylor.
Where does it live?
In Manitoba, look for Dickcissels between mid-June and early July in unkempt alfalfa, fallow fields, or weedy, ungrazed pastures, north to about the 50th parallel. Their numbers are unpredictable. In most years they are rare or absent, but occasionally they stage mid-June invasions, most recently in 2020.
Above: Braced on top of a fencepost near Elma, a male Dickcissel sings lustily; photo by Peter Taylor.
Where can I see it?
Males sing their name, dick-dick-cissel-cissel, loudly from exposed perches on wires, shrubs or saplings, and tall weeds. In invasion years, try a slow drive with the windows open along quiet section roads in suitable habitat. Once the fields are mown, the birds are gone and they rarely breed successfully in Manitoba.
Above: Keep an eye on wire birds, the next one might be a Dickcissel; photo by Peter Taylor.
Conservation Status
Despite drastic measures by some farmers to control their wintering numbers in Venezuelan cropland, and loss of North American breeding habitat to crop production, the Dickcissel remains an abundant bird of limited conservation concern.
Did you know?
The Dickcissel is a taxonomic puzzle, not quite fitting with North American blackbirds or sparrows, and currently grouped with cardinals and their colourful allied species.
Above: A singing bird on a weed in the middle of a field is likely to be a Savannah Sparrow or a Bobolink, but it might be a Dickcissel like this one; photo by Peter Taylor.