OK, someone please tell me what's going on here.

During my hike this afternoon, I first found what I thought was a female Red-Winged Blackbird alone in the brush. As I watched it, I saw it open its mouth in a juvenille feeding posture. What I couldn't see in the viewfinder at first was its parent.

What's going on here?!

This is probably a baby Cowbird. The female Cowbird lays its eggs in other birds nests leaving them to raise their young. The unfortunate thing about this is it is usually in the nest of a bird like that Yellow Warbler whos own young will probably not survive because the young cowbird is much larger and will end up getting all the food that is brought back to the nest.
Mike

That is a brown-headed cowbird and with 100% certainty the young yellow warbler never made it. When a cowbird parasitises a next, none of the host's babies make it. The baby cowbird pushes the young out of the nest!

Cowbirds lay eggs in sparrow nests, bluebird nest(real cavity nests), thrush nests, oriole nests and I have ever seen woodpeckers feeding them. I don't care for them much :wink:

That is a brown-headed cowbird and with 100% certainty the young yellow warbler never made it. When a cowbird parasitises a next, none of the host's babies make it. The baby cowbird pushes the young out of the nest!

Cowbirds lay eggs in sparrow nests, bluebird nest(real cavity nests), thrush nests, oriole nests and I have ever seen woodpeckers feeding them. I don't care for them much :wink:

The females are the ones with a territorial song!!! They actually announce a territory to other females that they have claimed an area to parasitise!



It's really strange, but, a lot of the female brown-headed cowbirds in my area have been dying off due to suspected lead piosoning. Strangely, it doesn't seem to be crossing over into other species, or, even, MALE COWBIRDS!!!!

So bizarre, I'm completely at a loss for any explanation… :confused:

Thanks, guys, for the information.

While its nature's design, it sounds like the host birds don't really have a chance to raise their own young once they have been "selected". Makes these cowbirds hard to love, I would imagine.

I suspect a pellet gun, because a shotgun makes too much noise ;) or atleast that's the norm in my area....so I was told :lol:


I have seen a few mixed flocks of starlings and cowbirds get blown from a tree before :wink:

I also know for a fact to plenty of cowbirds get a stomp when found in a nest.

This cowbird is obviously in the same family as our cuckoo, which does the same,

We had a Dunnock nest treated the same way.

Mother nature can be quite hard at times!

The major difference between cuckoos and cowbirds(in the US atleast) is that cowbirds are flocking birds, while cuckoos are not. Cowbirds for instance have parasitized EVERY local woodthrush nest (30+) in a 1000 acres area for atleast a few years, not to mention the other species it chose. Cuckoos on the otherhand are far less intrusive in numbers and don't cause a huge impact.