Of all the birds one might encounter during spring migration, none will be easier to identify than the Yellow-headed Blackbird – it’s a blackbird with a yellow head. This bit of obviousness notwithstanding, it’s one of the coolest looking birds around. After wintering in Mexico and the southwest, the bird is starting to push northward to breeding grounds in the plains and Canada. In California, we have a year-round group that reside in the far south, but in the spring, the Yellow-headed Blackbirds begin to push into the Central Valley. Over the last couple of days, we’re starting to hear lots of reports of them appearing, and it looks like they’re on the move. Sarah Mayhew reports seeing them in Davis today, and Sami LaRocca saw a ton of them yesterday at the Yolo Bypass. To illustrate, here’s an eBird map for February, compared to the one from today. (photo by Peter LaTourrette)