The bobolink breeds in the summer in North America across much of southern Canada and the northern United States; The bobolink
migrates long distances, wintering in southern South America. One bird was tracked migrating over the course of the year, often flying long distances up to in a single day, then stopping to recuperate for days or weeks. Bobolinks often migrate in flocks, feeding on cultivated grains and
rice, which leads to them being considered a pest by farmers in some areas. Although bobolinks migrate long distances, they have rarely been sighted in
Europe — like many vagrants from the Americas, the majority of records are from the
British Isles. The species has been known in the southern United States as the "reedbird," or the "ricebird" from their consumption of large amounts of the grain from rice fields in
South Carolina and the
Gulf States during their southward migration in the fall. One of the species' main migration routes is through
Jamaica, where they are called "butter-birds" and at least historically were collected as food, having fattened up on the aforementioned rice. A bobolink was collected in the Galápagos Islands by Charles Darwin in 1835. Bobolinks have been hypothesized to act as vectors for avian malaria-causing parasites arriving in the Islands. Additionally, bobolinks in the Galápagos have been found with seeds from
Drymaria cordata, a plant native to the Galápagos but highly invasive elsewhere, entangled in their feathers, potentially spreading them to the mainland. ==Behaviour==