of colonies could be found in wetlands. In 2008, over a fourth of colonies were using non-native vegetation to nest, most notably Himalayan blackberry brambles. Although population decline was a consequence of agricultural intensification over the twentieth century, the birds were able to use these environmental changes to their advantage. The 2008 tricolored blackbird census found that nearly half of the total population nested in colonies inside of the grain fields of dairy farms. As the twentieth century progressed, the tricolor began to increase in concentration within certain colonies. Specifically, in 2000, 59% birds were housed in one of California’s ten largest colonies, and this number increased to 81% by 2011. Mega-colonies of the tricolor have begun to form in the San Joaquin Valley’s numerous agricultural fields. Although the tricolor population consistently decreased during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, the population nested in San Joaquin Valley grew exponentially during this time. The number of tricolors in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1994 was 230% of what it was in 1937. By 2008, over 86% of California’s population were located here. Conservation efforts by the National Audubon Society in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have seen an impact on population numbers. The California population of tricolors saw an increase in the 2017 state survey from previous years. Nonetheless, most of this population gain was within the San Joaquin Valley or in San Benito County. Other regions of California saw a reduction in population in the 2017 census, including Sacramento Valley, with observations down by about 33% from the prior census in 2014. There has been a steady decline of the tricolors observed in this region over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a greater proportion of birds moving to the San Joaquin Valley. There has also been an overall population decline in Southern California as well, following the dairy industry’s move out of Southern California in the 1980s, in favor of the San Joaquin Valley. The other California region that saw a population increase in 2017 was the Central Coast. Historically, the Central Coast and Central Valley housed millions of tricolors before the population decline associated with human agricultural activity. Still, the population increase seen in 2017—from 627 to 17,576 birds—likely was not due to a growing number of tricolors coming to the Central Coast. Instead, this drastic population increase likely was a result of