The bobolink is a grassland specialist at both ends of its year. It breeds in tall herbaceous meadow across the northern tier of North America and winters in the pampas and marsh grasslands of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and southern Brazil. The one-way distance runs to roughly ten thousand kilometres, so a bird living several years covers a distance comparable to circling the planet more than once.
Migration takes it across the Gulf and the Caribbean and down the length of South America. Its old name of ricebird records the historical damage flocks did to rice crops in the southeastern United States, and heavy persecution followed.
The present pressure is agricultural timing. Bobolinks nest on the ground in hayfields, and the modern hay-cutting schedule falls squarely inside the nesting period, destroying nests before the young fledge. Delaying the first cut, where it is economically possible, is the single measure most consistently identified as helping. The species remains listed as Least Concern globally, but North American survey data show long-term decline.