Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Very Vocal Dickcissel

By: Tom Berg

Have you ever heard of a bird called the Dickcissel? It seems like a very strange name, but like the names of many birds, the name comes from the song that this bird sings. The dickcissel is often perched on top of a fencepost or at the top of a short tree sapling singing “dick, dick, dick” followed almost immediately by “ciss, ciss, ciss”. So someone a long time ago named this bird dickcissel!

Dickcissels are relatively small birds, about the size of a house sparrow. Adult male dickcissels are brownish gray on their back and wings, with a mostly gray head. They have a yellow stripe above their eye and another yellow stripe coming off their lower beak. A contrasting black and white throat lies just above a bright yellow chest.  Adding to the color pattern is a reddish brown shoulder patch. They are a very distinctive-looking bird.

Prairie grasslands are the preferred habitat of the dickcissel, and they can be found throughout the central and midwestern United States during the spring and summer breeding season. Besides open grasslands, they also seek out farm fields, hayfields, pastures and other open areas where they can search for the seeds that they love to eat.

During the nesting season, dickcissels eat a variety of seeds and insects. Prairie bugs like grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars are some of their favorites. During the fall migration, however, they eat mostly seeds. Seeds from grasses, weeds and trees make up a large part of their diet, along with grain and seeds from farmer’s fields.

Dickcissels are long distance migrants, and they typically begin leaving their US-based breeding grounds in large flocks as early as mid-August. During the fall migration they head for their wintering grounds in the far south, and by September or October they are already enjoying the warm weather along the western coasts of Central America and the northern regions of South America.

When the snow begins to fall here in the Midwest, some of us wish we had followed them!

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