I almost posted an observation along these lines several weeks ago. In a one-week span I noticed three separate cowbird chicks all being attended to by blue-grey gnatcatchers. There was always a single cb chick to each set of birds, and never any sign of additional BGGC chicks vying for the food. In that same time span I also noticed a CBchick being fed by a pair of indigo buntings. It's not hard to find them as they are very raucous and conspicuous. I am curious how the numbers and densities of birds most typically affected by CB predations are doing here because we have hordes of cowbirds, yet I always hear/see vireos and thrushes and others that are prime targets for parasitism. I check my nest boxes regularly and destroy any CB eggs in the hopes that at least my small wooded acreage can better sustain songbirds in a time of decline, but we live in farmland with any remaining wooded areas being highly fragmented. Flocks of winter 'blackbirds' are usually groupings of redwings, starlings, grackles and cowbirds fattened up on a steady and readily available farmland diet. I only wonder what our songbird demographics will do in the next few decades.

Day's right. Cormorants don't have those long legs. It's probably his posture that's throwing you off. You usually see them standing more upright with the neck stretched out. BTW, McSix, cormorants do roost in trees. One of our favourite birding spots has an area where LOTS of them roost. We call the path below 'Ammonia Junction'. >:~] ICA, Sophie ^i^

Welcome to the Cooking Forum, imscattered. I know what you mean, I have a couple of stepchildren who are adults but will not eat meat with bones in it. It confuses me. Even KFC now has boneless chicken, customers "demanded" it. People don't want bones, and they want easily portable food that they can eat in the car. I, however, raise grassfed beef, heritage turkeys, chickens for meat, my own pigs. We cure and smoke bacon, render lard, all that good stuff. I cook from scratch, not from a box or a can. I even roast my own coffee and occasionally grind wheat for flour. Many of us here cook fresh vegetables, bake our own bread, and yes, eat meat with bones in it. Annie

The black stripes on the face/head, body coloration, and size description point to Yellow-crowned Night Heron. But your description of red on top of the head doesn't fit. They also have the well-known propensity for eating crawfish.