Both Trinidad and To­ba­go are the homes of many at­trac­tive and in­ter­est­ing birds. This group forms a part of na­ture’s gift to us; a nat­ur­al her­itage, which we should recog­nise, cher­ish and pre­serve.

Among these, the yel­low-hood­ed black­bird is a fam­i­ly to a wide range of our lo­cal black­birds. This live­ly, lit­tle bird is about sev­en to eight inch­es in length. The male, which is more at­trac­tive than the fe­male, is of a shiny black, ex­cept for the bright yel­low of its head, throat and up­per part of its breast. Lo­cal­ly, it is al­so known as the yel­low head and yel­low neck. The fe­male is gen­er­al­ly of a light brown with a tinge of yel­low at the edge of its wings and tail feath­ers; its throat, as well as the sides of its head are of a pale yel­low.

These yel­low-hood­ed birds are seen in flocks, roost­ing in tall grass­es and shrubs and low branch­es of trees at the edge of swamps and marsh­es. Their nests are built among the stems of tall grass­es, reeds and rice plants, where cul­ti­vat­ed. Of­ten, how­ev­er, they al­so build their nests in man­grove trees, and shrubs found at the edge of swamps. Un­der nor­mal con­di­tions, their eggs are laid and hatched dur­ing the rainy sea­son, be­tween May and No­vem­ber.

They feed on grass seeds, es­pe­cial­ly rice. Like oth­er black­birds, they al­so feed on small, soft in­sects like but­ter­flies, moths, grasshop­pers, spi­ders and oth­ers. Where these birds are found near hous­es, they may al­so feed on cooked foods, which are main­ly left­overs from fam­i­lies who live on the fringe of the wet­lands. Foods like bread cakes, bread, whole or cooked rice, roti and oth­er soft foods such as boiled or fried, ground pro­vi­sion; yam, dasheen, ed­does, cas­sa­va and oth­ers It is re­gret­table that be­cause of the de­struc­tion of their nat­ur­al habi­tats through fires and in­dis­crim­i­nate light­ing of bush fires, as well as land us­age in de­vel­op­ment, our birds and oth­er wildlife, mi­grate to the harsh en­vi­ron­ment of our cities, towns, and vil­lages; of­ten to their demise.

It is quite ev­i­dent that some birds live in pairs, male and fe­male; for ex­am­ple, the blue-grey tan­ag­er al­so called the blue jean, palm tan­ag­er, some­times called the co­conut bird, the well-known kiskadee, the trop­i­cal mock­ing bird and many more, while oth­ers are seen in flocks; like the scar­let ibis, flamin­go, par­rot, para­keet cor­beau, the big, brown pel­i­can and oth­ers The yel­low hood­ed black­bird is among those birds, which live in flocks.

It is in­ter­est­ing to note, how­ev­er, that our yel­low-hood­ed black­birds in spite of liv­ing in flock as­so­ciate and feed com­fort­ably with oth­er black­birds; like the shiny cow­birds, grack­les (com­mon black­birds) and oth­ers, and al­so with our ground doves. These birds are very shy and re­spond in­stant­ly to any slight move­ments. It is be­lieved by some peo­ple, that birds are spir­i­tu­al, and may re­spond pos­i­tive­ly to­ward peo­ple, or be ag­gres­sive to oth­ers, whose au­ra may be re­pul­sive. Take a lit­tle break some­times, re­lax and lis­ten to the many dif­fer­ent bird sounds you may hear. Look around and iden­ti­fy the dif­fer­ent birds and their habits. There are much to dis­cov­er and en­joy right there in your back­yard. When next you vis­it our marsh­es, swamps and la­goons, look out for this at­trac­tive, yel­low-hood­ed black­bird and en­joy the sight.