Two weeks ago I was surprised and excited to find a new bird in my front yard. My excitement quickly dissipated when I discovered the new visitor was a Brown-headed Cowbird. Now I’m just beside myself wondering what to do as we appear to be Cowbird central for about 5 males and 4 females.
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| Male Brown-headed Cowbird |
Cowbirds are bad news. They are referred to as “brood parasites”, because they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. The female Cowbird lays about 40 eggs in a year. Many of these eggs are laid in the nests of song birds.
Some species of song birds such as the Black-capped Vireo may be threatened by these birds. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, “studies have shown that the removal of one female cowbird enhances the survival of 35 songbirds per year.”
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| Male Brown-headed Cowbird (left) and Female (right) |
When the female Cowbird lays her egg in the nest of another bird, she will sometimes destroy one or more of the eggs already in the nest. Sometimes the Cowbird chicks even push the other chicks out of the nest, so that the host bird ends up raising a Cowbird and no actual chicks of her own. With this sort of behavior, it’s easy to see why many attribute the decline in the songbird population to the Cowbird.
luckily we havent had any grackles or cowbirds (just sparrows and starlings), so good luck with that...
ReplyDeleteI would say get a cat and let it out, but then you run the risk of it getting one of the non-cowbirds. Plus, I don't think a cat would last long in your hood...
I think you're probably right. My hood is a pretty wild place. The hawks would probably carry the poor kitties away. Maybe the hawks will come for the cowbirds. Now that's wishful thinking.
DeleteOh, no! I've never seen a cowbird but I'm glad for the knowledge of them. I hope I don't see one...Like Katina, we fight with the grackles at certain times of the year...spring being the worst. I usually put the food away for a few days and they leave for better scraps somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteI've never had to deal with grackles (knock on wood), so I'll count myself lucky in that department.
DeleteI have heard of this bird but never seen it. I sure hope he keeps away from our garden. The birds here have a bad enough time with the jays stealing their young.
ReplyDeleteI hope the cowbirds stay away from your garden as well. These guys are bad news.
DeleteOh, my, what would be the solution with cowbirds? With the house sparrows, I just keep removing their partially-built nests 'til they go somewhere else - otherwise they push all the other sparrows and songbirds out entirely - but how to thwart the cowbirds? I have a starling problem here. Starlings are such pigs, groups of them eating the hot pepper bird cakes and leaving little for the other birds, especially the woodpeckers, which I dearly love.
ReplyDeleteParks and Wildlife has a trapping program, which would be one option. It's definitely a tricky situation to deal with the cowbirds without affecting all the other birds which inhabit my front yard.
DeleteHey Ally - so what is involved with the Parks and Wildlife trapping program?
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have to get training and build a trap. I was hoping the cowbirds would move on before it comes to that, but we'll see how long they stick around.
DeleteCowbirds are bullies. We had a lot of them in our old place, in DFW. There were still lots of sparrows and Cardinals up there, and more Mockingbirds than we have here.
ReplyDeleteThe Cowbirds didn't always stick around long. Grackles on the other hand, stayed around all summer.
Now here, we have Starlings being bullies. They took over some Woodpecker holes/nesting places...took those woodpeckers a long to time make those holes.
I'm not sure if taking the feed away for a while would do any good. It does with Grackles...sometimes.
I have read that Cowbirds move frequently, so I was hoping they wouldn't be in the neighborhood long. If need be, I'll bring the feeders in. That should provide some added encouragement to hit the road.
DeleteOne summer I watched as a female cardinal hatched out and fed the Cowbird's baby birds. They are a bunch of slackers;)
ReplyDeleteYes, those cowbirds are bullies and slackers too! I just don't understand how the other birds don't recognize that the chicks are not theirs. Nature is such a mystery.
DeleteI have never heard of a cowbird. Good info to know..hope I don't see one.
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