(Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus)
Summer
Year-round
Winter
HABITAT: Favors prairie wetlands, but found more generally in deepwater marshlands in non-forested areas throughout the West
DESCRIPTION: Male with yellow head and breast, black body and face, striking white wing patches visible in flight; female about half size of male and more subdued brownish overall with pale yellow throat and breast
They’re named xanthocephalus twice (literally meaning “yellow head”) for the intensity of his brilliant yellow head, but were they named for their song, some would name them Awfulus awfulus. The male contorts his body as if he’s being strangled from within, and he sounds that way, too, as if he strains to squeeze out one last clattering and rasping imitation of, what? A giant rusty hinge, or a chain saw?
But how fascinating that he uses two different songs in different contexts. Clashing with a nearby bird in a territorial dispute, he points his head up and to the left, never the right, and with wings slightly spread he sings kuk—koh-koh-koh—waaaaaaaaaaaa, up to four seconds long, beginning with tonal notes and ending with a long nasal trill. As he responds to birds at a greater distance, such as a male flying over, see him spread his wings in a V over his back, exposing the white wing patches; with his tail lowered and spread, bill directed forward and upward, he delivers a very different song, a series of fluid, introductory notes often followed by a trill, the pattern of this song varying considerably from male to male.
Yearling males are less colorful than the older birds and their songs are incomplete; they don’t defend territories either, but instead create mayhem by intruding on territories of the older birds. She makes a racket, too, calling loudly with a harsh, raspy chee-chee-chee as she defends her small territory within his or as she commutes to and from her nest.
When not singing, males loudly tshuck throughout the day. When a hawk flies over, males boil up out of the marsh, flying upward, while uttering the most raucous of sounds imaginable.
Two rasping songs from male 
