Day 108: Yellow-shouldered Blackbird

Today, I have another special bird that we saw in Puerto Rico, the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird. Jared, his mom Susan, and I made a point to seek this bird out, because there are only a few thousand that are alive today. Jared heard that they are reliably seen at a convenience store in southwestern Puerto Rico that puts out bird food, so that was on our list of places to stop. Almost as soon as we arrived, opened our bottles of Coke, and started looking, we spotted one in a tree right in front of us! We managed to get a decent look, but only one or two quick pictures, before the bird flew away.

The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird is a glossy black bird with a small yellow patch around its shoulders. They were common in the early twentieth century, but now are on the federal endangered species list and can only be found in parts of southwest Puerto Rico, Mona, and Monito Islands. Since the arrival of the Shiny Cowbird from South America in the mid-twentieth century, almost all of the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird nests were parasitized by this species. The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird's estimated population on the main island of Puerto Rico dropped to only 200-300 birds in the 1970s, but has since climbed back to over 1,000. A fluctuating population of 400-900 survive on Mona and Monito Islands, where cowbirds do not live.