_Breeding schedule._--Twenty-three records of breeding span the period
April 10 to July 30 (Fig. 8); the modal date for egg-laying is May 5
for first nests and June 5 for second nests.
_Number of eggs._--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (4.3, 3-6; 16).
Nests are placed on the ground with cover of grasses or forbs.
=Yellow-headed Blackbird=: _Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus_
(Bonaparte).--This uncommon and local summer resident occurs chiefly
in the west, in marshes. Nesting records are from Wallace, Meade,
Barton, Stafford, Doniphan, and Douglas counties. Temporal occurrence
is indicated in Table 18.
_Breeding schedule._--Fifty-one records of breeding span the period
May 20 to June 30; the modal date of egg-laying is June 5. The sample
is probably not large enough to be wholly reliable.
_Number of eggs._--Clutch-size is about 4 eggs.
Nests are placed within a few feet of water in cattail, rush, sedge,
and willow.
=Red-winged Blackbird=: _Agelaius phoeniceus_ (Linnaeus).--This is a
common summer resident in marshes, wet pasture, and scrubby parkland
throughout the State. _A. p. phoeniceus_ (Linnaeus) occurs in most of
Kansas and _A. p. fortis_ (Ridgway) occurs in the west, east to about
Decatur County. A few birds can be found in eastern Kansas in winter;
the full breeding population is present between April and October.
_Breeding schedule._--The 109 records of breeding in Cloud County span
the period May 1 to July 30 (Fig. 8); the modal date for laying is May
25, and 71 per cent of all eggs are laid in the period May 11 to June
10. Eighty-eight records of breeding from northwestern Kansas make a
histogram almost exactly duplicating the one from Cloud County.
_Number of eggs._--Clutch-size at Concordia, Cloud County, is 4 eggs
(3.7, 3-5; 48); in northeastern Kansas mean clutch-size is 3.7 eggs
(3-5; 46). For the total sample, mean clutch-size in May is 4.0 eggs,
in June, 3.7 eggs, and in July, 3.3 eggs.
Nests are placed about four feet high (one to nine feet) in willow,
cattail, sedge, grass, elm, exotic conifer, elderberry, coralberry,
buttonbrush, honeysuckle, smartweed, ash, osage orange, and yellow
clover.
In central Kansas red-wings are host to the Brown-headed Cowbird in a
frequency of one parasitized nest out of nine; in northeastern Kansas
the ratio is 1:25.
TABLE 18.--OCCURRENCE IN TIME OF SUMMER RESIDENT ICTERIDS IN KANSAS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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