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Junco with strange chick

16 years ago

We have an Oregon Junco with a strange chick in our yard. The chick is bigger than the mother, a dull brown with a suggestion of a ayellow stripe on its wings. It is a much rounder body type than its mother and although it can fly, it calls constantly for food and sits and shakes as it is being fed. We live on Vancouver Island. Any idea what it is? Unfortunately, the picture is not clear, I couldn't get close. The chick is sitting on the rail, the mother atop the post.

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Comments (5)

donald lucius
16 years ago
can not tell for sure but it appears to be a young brownheaded cowbird. If it is it will get to be about the size of a blackbird Cow birds are notorious for layig their eggs in other birds nests and leaveing them to hatch
kenn3d
16 years ago
Hi Dotty,

This is undoubtedly a baby Cowbird. The female Cowbird lays her eggs in the nests of other birds and let's the surrogate parents raise them. Usually just one egg per nest but she may lay individual eggs in multiple nests.

Our Juncos are winter visitors and don't breed here, but we see Cowbabies with Song Sparrow and Cardinal parents nearly every year. It would be interesting to know if these Junco parents fledged any of their own Junco babies also, as the cowbabies are usually larger than their step-siblings and out-compete them for food in the nest... This often results in the "natural" offspring not surviving to fledge.

Kenn
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dottyinduncan
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the quick answers. My DH thought it must be a cowbird but when I googled cowbird, it looked different. Perhaps because it is just young. Our juncos raise several broods a year but this is the first time I've seen an imposter with one. Often juncos nest in my hanging baskets and I can keep watch for imposters. Juncos are one of the most numerous birds in this area.
donald lucius
16 years ago
we are a litle different here just south of us 15 minutes drive is almost desert with sagebrush and a litle grass but 15 minutes north of here are high mountains. The juncos don't migrate but just change elevations with the weather and seasons. In late fall or early winter with the first snows the juncos show up. they stay most of the winter unless it'e extremely bad they head lower but in early spring they move uphill towards the mountains and forest and alpine tundras. but in late fall the cold and heavy snow drives them down here to the foothills and valleys. the cowbirds head south in fall with the blackbirds. but return early spring and i see most of the young cowbirds with the red wing blackbirds who get the job of feeding them.
dottyinduncan
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks diclucius for the interesting info. I think we have juncos year round but it is always neat to know where birds go when they migrate from your own area.

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