Dickcissle | Best Life Birding- Birdwatching Tours

By Corie Long Latta

Okay…. hold back the chuckles on this one! This goodlookin’ fella is called a Dickcissel. Yes.. You read that correctly. I know, I know, it’s a silly name, and I know that you just laughed out loud like a silly little 8 year old! Somehow it came about it’s name due to its call. Somewhere along the way, some body though it sounded like the bird was calling out, DICKCISSEL, and said… HEY, that’s what I’ll call this fine specimen of a bird, a DICKCISSEL! Sounds great, let’s roll with it! I mean….

Certainly you’d think they could have come up with a better name, but here we are! It’s May 2023 and I’m out chasing a Dickcissel. Why you ask?? Well.. it’s a bird isn’t is? And by now, you know me! If there’s a bird out there that is rare to my area, well… out the door I go, with camera in tow, bird hunting! It’s the adult version of hide and seek that I can’t get enough of! And this particular species is a lifer for me. Meaning, I’ve never seen one before, so it was rather exciting to add it to my life list of bird species I’ve seen.

This particular dickcissel is out of his typical range. They are usually found in the central plains and not along coastal states. But a small flock seems to have found their way to Maple View Farms in Hillsborough. And birders are “flocking” to get a glimpse of them (see what I did there?). So this week, my news feed has been full of my birding entourage and their captures of the Dickcissels. (If you’re one of my birding buddies that went out and captured it, please share your photos in the comments!)

Commonly found in pastures with tall grasses, foraging for seeds, the Dickcissel is a bird that can be quite the pest for farmers. During fall migration, they will gather in massive flocks that can easily reach into the hundreds of thousands. And during the winter, there have been some flocks that can reach into the millions. WOW!! However, during breeding season, they are quite solitary birds, spending their time with their mate. While the female does all the preparations, building and sitting on the nest and feeding the young until they fledge, the male has absolutely no part in it, other than aggressively protecting his territory. Well… now that I think about it, maybe that’s where the name came from… he’s not very helpful in child rearing and his counterpart got mad! LOL!!

Maple View Farms, Hillsborough

5/23/23

PS. Have you seen this bird too? Leave a comment below about your dick bird experience lol!

By Sally Siko

Stoked to finally lay eyes on my first Dickcissle a couple of hours ago in Carrboro, NC!
Luckily this lifer wasn’t too difficult to spot as he was singing loudly in an open field of Blue Cornflowers across the highway from the Maple View Farm Ice Cream shop between the creamery and the farm pond.
It only took about 30 minutes to locate the bird once I was able to pick out his unique song of sharp sounds followed by a buzzy, almost hissed cisssssselll.
What a beauty!

The breeding range of the Dickcissle typically stretches across the great plains region of the United States. Strangely enough though, quite a few of them also breed east of the Appalachian mountains, including right here in North Carolina.
Though a certain number of Dickcissels call the East Coast home during the summer they are still considered a rare sighting here in the Tar Heel state from May through July.

The Dickcissel is the only living member of the “Spiza” genus, inside the family of Cardinals and were named for the male’s song.
As with other members of Cardinal family, during the breeding season, Dickcissels eat both insects and seeds. Insects include grasshoppers, caterpillars, termites, flies, wasps, beetles; they also eat spiders. During migration and in the winter months, they eat almost exclusively seeds including grasses, willows, and buckwheat as well as crops including rice and sorghum.

These handsome birds are best spotted singing from the tops of scrubby branches in open fields, grasslands and in agricultural areas throughout the midwestern states of the US from Texas to the Dakotas.
But as seen here, you never quite know where a pair of Dickcissles will show up so it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for them throughout the summer months.

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding both captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

PS. 10/10 recommend getting some ice cream at the nearby Maple View Farm Ice Cream ❤️