On Thu, 9 Jul 1998, Jim Rosso wrote:
>
> For the longest time it was believed that Tricolored Blackbirds were only
> found in California and then I noticed that the latest field guides show
> them in the Klamath area of Oregon. Being up in eastern Washington is
> quite a jump. I find this very interesting.
>
When I first moved to Oregon, this was my impression as well, but since
being here, I've discovered that this random breeding distribution is not
common but occurs. Here's a list of the colonies I've heard about,
someone with more Oregon knowledge might add more:

1) There was a colony in North Portland that went defunct several years
ago. However, David Bailey found 7 birds at this site in April of this
year. I still had two birds there on May 9, but successive visits have
found no birds.

2) There was a large colony near Prineville a couple of years ago
(200 birds--this was my lifer: a volume lifer), that
petered out to a few birds last year. I've heard of no reports this year.

3) There has been a reasonably steady colony in the Painted Hills Unit of
the John Day Fossil Beds that has been reported for at least the last
four years. This colony sounds like the same size as the Soap Lake
colony.

4) Birds nested near Wamic in Wasco Co. three or four years ago, but I
haven't heard any reports from here in the last year or so.

5) A colony is in a marsh at MM 184 of I-84 on the north side of the
highway near Stansfield.

This is a really interesting phenomenon to me, and I figured that given
the locations of some of the colonies and the similar habitat in Eastern
Washington, that someone would stumble on a group at some point.

If you want to look at them, go now while they're still there. The
Prineville birds, for example, left almost immediately after the young
fledged.

RK
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Korpi "Under transient skies
Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA I cannot hobble change,
rkorpi at csci.clark.edu Not now or ever."
President, Oregon Field -William Kloefkorn
Ornithologists _Alvin_Turner_as_Farmer_, #16
**Inquiries on Oregon birds
always welcome**