Dickcissel

Description: 6" male like a miniature meadowlark (yellow breast with black V) but has heavy bill and chestnut wing patch, female much like female House Sparrow, but some narrow streaks along sides, and yellowish throat and breast	Habitat: Weedy fields and meadows, grain fields, tall-grass prairies, pastures, alfalfa fields. Forages on the ground. Nesting grounds change erratically. Gregarious in migration. Sings from trees and fence posts
Nesting: 4-5 pale blue eggs in a loose cup of plant stems and grasses set on or near the ground, often in alfalfa and clover fields	Range: breeds from eastern Montana and Great lakes region south to Texas, Gulf Coast area, locally farther east, winters in tropics
Voice: song sounds like dick-dick-cissel, the first two notes being sharp sounds followed by a buzzy almost hissed cissel, repeated over and over again from a conspicuous perch on a fence or in a tree, call a distinctive buzzy note often given in flight	Diet: Younger birds predominantly (70%) grain, grass and forb seeds, remainder insects. Adults the reverse, 70 % insects, 30% seeds.

Notes: more numerous in west, formerly numerous in east but disappeared in mid-19th century, will come to seed feeders, forms small to large flocks in winter

When present in Oklahoma: present state-wide during summer months, less abundant and sparse in eastern and central part of state in winter