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This page lists books that are totally or partially about New World Blackbirds. The books are listed in order of publication date with the most recent at the top.

Austral Blackbird
Curaeus curaeus

Bolivian Blackbird
Agelaioides oreopsar

Brewer's Blackbird
Euphagus cyanocephalus

Chestnut-capped Blackbird
Chrysomus ruficapillus

Chopi Blackbird
Gnorimopsar chopi

Cuban Blackbird
Dives atroviolaceus

Forbes's Blackbird
Curaeus forbesi

Jamaican Blackbird
Nesopsar nigerrimus

Melodious Blackbird
Dives dives

Oriole Blackbird
Gymnomystax mexicanus

Pale-eyed Blackbird
Agelasticus xanthophthalmus

Red-breasted Blackbird
Sturnella militaris

Red-shouldered Blackbird
Agelaius assimilis

Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoeniceus

Rusty Blackbird
Euphagus carolinus

Saffron-cowled Blackbird
Xanthopsar flavus

Scarlet-headed Blackbird
Amblyramphus holosericeus

Scrub Blackbird
Dives warszewiczi

Tawny-shouldered Blackbird
Agelaius humeralis

Tricolored Blackbird
Agelaius tricolor

Unicolored Blackbird
Agelasticus cyanopus

White-browed Blackbird
Sturnella superciliaris

Yellow-headed Blackbird
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

Yellow-hooded Blackbird
Chrysomus icterocephalus

Yellow-shouldered Blackbird
Agelaius xanthomus

Yellow-winged Blackbird
Agelasticus thilius

The New World Blackbirds are not related to the Common Blackbird of Europe and Asia.

Ecology and Management of Blackbirds (Icteridae) in North America

Editor: George M. Linz, Michael L. Avery, Richard A. Dolbeer

2017

"For the first time, Ecology and Management of Blackbirds (Icteridae) in North America summarizes and synthesizes this vast body of information on the biology and life histories of blackbirds and their conflicts with humans into a single volume for researchers, wildlife managers, agriculturists, disease biologists, ornithologists, policy makers, and the public. The book reviews the life histories of red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, common grackles, and brown-headed cowbirds. It provides in-depth coverage of the functional roles of blackbirds in natural and agricultural ecosystems. In doing so, this authoritative reference promotes the development of improved science-based, integrated management strategies to address conflicts when resolutions are needed."

Polygyny and Sexual Selection in Red-Winged Blackbirds

William A. Searcy and Ken Yasukawa

Princeton University Press

2014

"The purpose of this book is to explain why red-winged blackbirds are polygynous and to describe the effects of this mating system on other aspects of the biology of the species. ..... This work reviews the results of many studies by other researchers, as well as presenting the authors' own results. Studies of red-winged blackbirds have ranged from long-term investigations of reproductive success and demography, to research on genetic parentage based on modern molecular methods, to a variety of experimental manipulations of ecological circumstances and behavior. Since the red-winged blackbird is one of the best studied species of any taxa in terms of its behavior and ecology, the authors have a particularly extensive body of results on which to base their conclusions."

Originally published in 1995.

Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 16: Tanagers to New World Blackbirds

Edited by Josep Del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and David Christie

Lynx Edicions

2011

893 pages, 81 colour plates, 499 colour photos, 766 distribution maps.

This volume covers cardinals and allies, tanagers, buntings and allies and new world blackbirds.

New World Blackbirds: The Icterids

Alvaro Jaramillo and Peter Burke

Princeton University Press

1999

"New World Blackbirds is a comprehensive guide to the 103 members of the family Icteridae, also known as the icterids or troupials. The icterids are a diverse family, ranging throughout the Americas from Alaska to the Caribbean and south to Cape Horn. Despite the name "blackbird," the group contains such highly colored birds as the orioles. It includes common and intensively studied species - the Red-winged Blackbird and the Brown-headed Cowbird, for example - and such rare and obscure birds as the Colombian Mountain-Grackle and the Montserrat and Martinique Orioles. Two species in the family, the Selva Cacique and the Pale-eyed Blackbird, were not described at all until as recently as the 1960s and 1970s. The thirty-nine highly detailed plates in this book depict all the species and many subspecies and age types never illustrated before. The book also contains over one hundred color range maps as well as black-and-white illustrations to aid identification. The extensive text summarizes the characteristics and natural history of each species, giving details on behavior, nesting, geographic variation, distribution, vocalizations, and in-depth plumage descriptions for all age types. Clearly written and exhaustively researched, this book will be the standard reference work for this major family of birds."

New World Blackbirds: The Icterids

Alvaro Jaramillo and Peter Burke

Helm Identification Guides

Christopher Helm

1998

"Covers the 103 species which range throughout the Americas and Caribbean. The book describes every species, including races where relevant, and covers many aspect of the natural history and identification of the species including behavior, nesting, geographic variation, distribution, vocalizations. There are distribution maps and line drawings which illustrate aspects of bird behavior. 39 colour plates show all the species and many subspecies."

Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin: A Natural History

Alexander F. Skutch

1996

"From blackbirds and orioles to meadowlarks, grackles, and cowbirds, the variety and variation shown by members of the family Icteridae is legend. The family exhibits great diversity in size and coloration, mating and nest building, and habits and habitats. This group of 94 New World species once known as the troupials is well represented in backyards across America; yet most icterids are tropical or semi-tropical species that remain largely unstudied. The least known of these species are perhaps best known to Alexander Skutch, who has studied birds in a Costa Rican tropical valley for more than half a century. In this fascinating book - the first devoted exclusively to the icterids - he combines his own observations with those of other naturalists to provide a comparative natural history and biology of this remarkable family of birds. Devoting a separate chapter to each major group or genus, he delineates the outstanding characteristics of each and includes observations of little-studied tropical species such as caciques and oropendolas. Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin is an eminently readable natural history in the classic style. Enhanced by 31 scratchboard illustrations, this book will delight nature enthusiasts everywhere with its fascinating exposition of avian diversity. Because so much of the published information on the icterids is widely scattered, Skutch's painstaking compilation has created a valuable reference work that will provide students and researchers with a wealth of new insights into the tropical members of this New World family."

The Red-Winged Blackbird: The Biology of a Strongly Polygynous Songbird

Les D. Beletsky

1996

"In this book, Les Beletsky calls on 20 years experience of redwings to provide an up-to-date, comprehensive summary of all the major work done with these birds. These studies on the redwings' polygynous breeding system, strong territoriality, complex vocal communications, and broad distribution shed light on many themes of key interest to behaviorists and ecologists interested in the evolution of mate choice and species adaptations to habitats which vary in character in different parts of their range."

Red-winged Blackbirds: Decision-making and Reproductive Success

Les D. Beletsky and Gordon H. Orians

1996

"Drawing on detailed data from their 16-year study of red-winged blackbirds in the marshes of Washington's Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, Les Beletsky and Gordon Orians analyze the information redwings use to make breeding-season decisions and the consequences these decisions have for lifetime reproductive success. Male and female redwings make different, and often independent, decisions - males focus on territory acquisition and maintenance, while females must choose when and where to nest and how much energy to invest in reproduction. Accordingly the authors have taken the approach within this text of studying the two sexes seperately. Using analyses of observational data combined with field experiments and game-theoretical models, the authors provide insights into the complex patterns of reproductive decision-making and breeding behaviour in redwings."

Polygyny and Sexual Selection in Red-Winged Blackbirds

William A. Searcy and Ken Yasukawa

Princeton University Press

1995

"The aim of this text is to explain why red-winged blackbirds are polygynous and to describe the effects of this mating system on other aspects of the biology of the species. Polygyny, the study shows, has the effect of intensifying sexual selection by increasing the variance in mating success."

Blackbirds of the Americas

Gordon Orians

University of Washington Press

1985

Some Adaptations of Marsh-Nesting Blackbirds

A Comparative Study Of The Behavior Of Red-Winged, Tricolored, And Yellow-Headed Blackbirds

Gordon H Orians and Gene M. Christman

University of California Press

1968

Food Of The Bobolink, Blackbirds, And Grackles

F.E.L. Beal

Division Of Biological Survey Bulletin No. 13

US Department of Agriculture

Government Printing Office

1900

From the introduction:

In this bulletin are discussed the food habits of the bobolink, the cowbird, the yellow-headed blackbird, the red-winged blackbird, the California red- winged blackbird, the rusty blackbird, Brewer's black- bird, the crow blackbird, and the boat-tailed grackle. These comprise all the important members of the group with the exception of the meadowlarks and orioles. 1 One or more of these species may be found at some time of the year in every State and Territory. As they are much given to nesting and feeding about farms and stock yards or to visiting outlying grainfields and pastures, the character of their food becomes a question of considerable importance to the cultivator.

Catalogue Of The Passeriformes or Perching Birds In The Collection Of The British Museum

Catalogue Of The Birds In The British Museum, Volume XI

Philip Lutley Sclater

Printed By Order Of The Trustees

Printed by Taylor & Francis

1888

From the introduction:

"The Tanagers were the subject of some of my earliest studies in the class of Birds. After writing many preparatory papers and notes on this group, I communicated, in 1856, to the Zoological Society of London a Synopsis of the whole family, which appeared in their 'Proceedings' for that year; and in the following year I published an Illustrated Monograph of one of the most extensive and brilliant genera. I may add that I have never lost sight of the subject since that period, but have always taken special interest in the group. It was therefore with great pleasure that I acceded to Dr. Gunther's request that I should prepare the Catalogue of the specimens of Tanagridae in the British Museum, to which my own series, the result of some thirty-five years' assiduous collecting, has been recently added. The two families Coerebidae and Icteridae, with which I had also a considerable previous acquaintance, were likewise assigned to me to make up the volume."