While traveling through the nature preserve, I finally encountered two pairs of brown headed cowbirds for the first time. Much to my surprise, the male looked like a smaller grackle with reverse coloring (Grackles have green heads and black / brown body, cowbirds have green body and brown heads). The female is about the same size as the male but is grayish brown. They sang rather sweetie and weren't too afraid of people. It let me get within 10 feet of them to get a closer look. In the old days, Cowbirds travel with bison herds, eating insects that associated with the herd. Their parasitic egg laying complimented their nomadic lifestyle. They have since moved into the suburbs. If they were parasitic, they would be considered beneficial birds since they eat a lot of insects. They travel with flocks of black birds like Ring wing and Grackles. Fortunately, even though I get a lot of blackbirds, I have only seen one cowbirds at the feeder. Apparently, Cardinals are nearly the perfect host, being the same size and diet. Laying eggs in a house finch nest will result in the fledging's death because they need more than a all vegetarian diet. Robins regularly eject cowbird eggs. On the downside, Cowbirds do apparently often check up on their fledging and retaliate by destroying the host's nest if the fledging or egg dies. Apparently, this is not malice but a way to force the host to build a new nest so that the cowbirds can build more eggs. Since cowbirds travel with Red wings and grackles, I wonder if they lay eggs in the red wing and grackle's nest.

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!

It was not a starling, I think there were a few of those but this was definitely not a starling. It's kind of like when a bird molts and a different color is starting to come through, only these spots were fairly large and had crisp lines which is why I think they were feathers that were colored incorrectly and not a pattern on the feather. I've never seen anything like it before. A mutation I suppose is possible, I wonder how often that happens? I couldn't find anything on the whatbird website.

Sure does! According to the Guide to Boreal Birds: "Parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) is rare in this species, probably because cowbirds are rare within its breeding range; however, this may change with changes in land use." I miss the white-throats - they winter over here but migrate north as soon as it's reasonable for them. The cowbirds mostly seem to parasitize Red-winged Blackbirds and Baltimore Orioles here and they seem to be a more suitable choice (at least the rest of the brood survives). It's funny to see a puzzled cowbird chick trying to eat jelly with the rest of its oriole brood (YUCK). Claire