Cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds nests so yup this Sparrow thinks it's her baby. I hope her other babies made it and didnt starve or get tossed from the nest.

Yes Konrad. Lisa is right and you are seeing right.
Cathy

Thanks Lisa & Cathy for confirming this, have seen Cowbird egg in a Sparrow nest but never seen the end product until now...LOL

Konrad

Alot of that going around!

7-26-09, Tulip Poplar by deck, Song Sparrow feeding Cowbird chick

Cowbirds are like the Mafia-if their songbird victims throw out the eggs or neglect the Cowbird nestlings, they return for revenge

http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mbrooks/pif/Fact%20Sheets/Cowbirds.htm

Don't just observe this nightmare happening, do something about it. This is not a movie, this is real devastation, folks. Just because the songbirds can't beg us for help doesn't mean they are not living in horror as their babies are being slaughtered and they are forced to raise even more of these murderers.
When your grandchildren ask what happened to all the beautiful songvbirds, you telling them, "I didn't do anything", will not clear you of gross negligence.

"Everytime I zap a cowbird, a nestful of beautiful baby songbirds get their wings"

cool shots on a very interesting interaction.

The interaction between songbirds and cowbirds have been going on for many years. For someone to suggest that the cowbirds will be the end of the songbirds, while suggesting that one should kill the cowbirds is not only an ignorant suggestion of an illegal activity. It is also myopic as to what causes declines in bird populations.

Thank you all!
Rachel, you have a great picture!

Konrad

Konrad I have a pic of a cow baby in the nest. Im computer stupid if you e mail me I will send it to you lvlice@aol.com

Here is the picture from Lisa,....what a great shot!

Konrad

As you can see the cowbird baby is as innocent and dependant as the other babies. It has no idea that it has caused harm. By this point it is to late to do anything. Please keep an eye out for these eggs. This baby takes up 1/2 of the nest, there were 5 eggs when I first looked. This means 2 eggs were tossed. This is just a sad thing,luckily all 4 of these babies fledged, most nests are not so lucky. I was able to monitor this nest and knew all the babies were getting fed. Please dont let these eggs hatch. Nobody wants to harm a baby bird, I sure couldn't but seeing how these babies grow you may decide it's not so bad to render the egg "non vialable", there will be plenty of cowbird eggs in nests you cant see, I have a Cardinal with a cow baby now. They will survive, we just dont need so many of them. Thanks Konrad!

Yes, we have it here too, with the White-crowned Sparrows:

{{!gwi}} (July 19th)