I've never seen bronzed cowbirds here, but I can imagine they might come this far north some years. I've seen some birds here some years that I never expected to ever see here, so it isn't hard to imagine that the bronzed cowbirds might be in Tree's part of the state. I have seen rusty blackbirds but I think they were bigger than what Tree described. Still, we all have to remember that sometimes a person is looking at a half-grown adult, or at a female, and their size and coloring won't be the same as the full-grown males (which often are the ones shown in ID photos). One of my neighbors commented 3 or 4 years ago that after all the terrible drought years since 2005, he's seen a lot of rare birds here that you normally don't see in Oklahoma. Maybe we have some of those rare birds still hanging around here.....maybe once they came here to visit, they liked it.

I think your correct. We've had male RWBs for several weeks and they usually feed from the platform. They were one of the first migrating birds to arrive. I just assumed the female RWB were similar. Thanks

It's a baby cardinal! And it just finally left the artificial ficus while it's parents called to it from a nearby tree! It's little "mohawk" is in, and the colors are that of a baby cardinal and not a cowbird. It just was very reluctant to leave the nest. Yesterday, it began to crawl out further onto the branches of the ficus, chip-chipping and a parent would answer back. The parents have spent so much time with this particular fledgling...I have to wonder about the safety of the other two. They're still out there. The male comes flying out from under our window shrubs when blackbirds are in the front yard and issues his "alert." What a relief...but now, that little chipmunk from next door! I started tossing seed balls into their own shrubbery to keep the chipmunk away and am using live mealworms and safflower. Might have to take down the suet, since the cowheads/blackbirds seem to like it far too much and come into territory where the fledglings are hiding. I read they will fly within 20 days. It's now 14 days since I first noticed the birds were hatched. They could have hatched before I saw them. So when should they begin to fly? I know the parents do stay with them and "train" them.. But that chipmunk! Thank you all for responding to my "cardinal adventure." What a lovely song they sing. : ) ...And I just watched the little guy hop off with both parents very near. I don't hear them now. Just so they're all safe!

Chipping sparrows seem to be really easy prey for the cowbird. For the last 2 years, I've seen the chipping sparrow come to my feeder and then feed the baby cowbird, which was twice the size of the chipping sparrow. Hopefully, this year, the cowbird isn't around. I've seen a pair of chipping sparrows at my feeder continually so hopefully, they will be more successful this year.