Don't Have a Cow (Bird), Man
The Brown-headed Cowbird is one heck of a Brood Parasite.
Ever heard of the term “Brood Parasite”? I hadn’t until a few months ago when watching Brown-headed Cowbirds with my father back home in San Antonio, Texas. These little dark-colored feathered friends (or should I say fiends) were eating seeds and hanging around flocks of pigeons and Inca Doves. As I often do after snapping a few photos, I got around to googling this bird and quickly learned why other birds don’t like them.
Does the Brown-headed Cowbird build a nest like a normal bird? Does it love its kiddos and raise them to be good members of bird society? That would be a hard no.
Rather, these birds lay tons of eggs in other birds’ nests in order to trick their neighbors into doing all of the work. Moreover, their existence in the nest not only steals resources from the parents’ actual kids—cowbirds often get rid of their competition.
The crazy thing is that despite this ongoing problem, many birds cannot tell the eggs apart and will still treat recently hatched cowbirds as their own. Oh sure, some birds have wised up to what is going on—but they might not have the ability to put a stop to it. In fact, part of this might be due to blackmail as Brown-headed Cowbirds sometimes wipe out whole nests that reject their invasive eggs.
So ruthless is this bird that it has caused declined in many song bird species, resulting in some conservation efforts that target cowbird populations. Which is unfortunate, considering that the cowbird’s own cry is pleasant to listen to.
Cowbirds get their name from often hanging out around cattle and farms, eating scattered grains or bugs disturbed by other livestock. They can be found across most of the continental United States year round, with the exception of a large section of the inland Northwest.
Until next (Bird!) time,
Grover