Thanks to the above turkey hen, I've learned that the red 'skin tags' are called caruncles, L.caruncula, meaning little piece of flesh. Looks like maybe her feathers are in red curlers. Anyway, the red wing blackbirds arrived yesterday - first I've seen this year despite 'the winter that wasn't'. Jane

I haven't seen any this year here in Plymouth, MA but I just checked eBird for May 2013 in Massachusetts and there are a lot of reports. I checked the Birds of North America Online site and they say: "Also breeds very sporadically and locally (usually after major winter irruptions) south to se. Massachusetts (Veit and Petersen 1993)..." Maybe they'll breed in your area! Claire

Thanks, Jane, for the references. I found the sites: Carl Strang's June 2009 entry and Stanford group essay on Cowbirds. I'm a little skeptical about Strang's statement on instinctual behavior - it may be true but it sounds more like a belief not based on any science. (Just a quibble on my part - if he'd said the juvenile cowbirds 'appear' to seek out other cowbirds, based on his observations, I wouldn't have been annoyed - but ascribing the behavior to 'instinct' is a jump too far). A very interesting fact in the Stanford essay is that only about 3 percent of cowbird eggs actually result in adults! That's major mortality. The cowbird female just keeps laying eggs and eggs and eggs ... "An average female lays about 80 eggs, 40 per year for two years. About 3 percent of those 80 eggs end up as adults -- an average of 2.4 adults per female. Clearly, such numbers more than compensate for the excessive loss of eggs and young in the nests of inappropriate hosts." I wonder how the current situation differs from the earlier situation when the cowbirds evolved to follow the bison herds and couldn't hang around to set up a proper nest without dropping behind and struggling to find food for themselves and the young. That behavior probably was dependent on the migration patterns of the bison, but nowadays the cowbirds have the luxury of being able to stay in the same area as their young, even if they don't get involved in the raising of them. As far as which came first, the parasitic behavior or the adaptation to it, I would think that the ability to lay so many eggs and the rapid maturation of the young would come early. There's an interesting entry in the Birds of North America Online site (subscription only) saying that "Most fledgling losses occurred 1 or 2 d after leaving nest". There are a lot of unknowns here, but it's an interesting topic for study. I'm glad I don't have to do the research myself, it would drive me crazy trying to pull together all of the variables. Claire

black oil sunflower seeds probably attract more birds than any other feed. you can use a tube feeder or a mesh wire feeder or even a hopper feeder. Suet is a great treat in winter but some birds eat it year around. you can use a suet cage and buy suet cakes or make your own suet mix. there are lots of old posts on here making suet. if you like doves and juncos and other ground feeders the seed mixes with cracked corn ot millet do good but they also attract blackbirds and starlings and cowbirds which lots of people don't want around. the summer song birds such as tanagers and orioles and grosbeaks like fruit or berrys or drink from necter feeders. or plants with berrys or blooms and blossoms. the woodpeckers i get here love nuts and suet and cracked corn and millet. robins and bluebirds like mealworms or grubs or earthworms the tits and chickadees and nuthatches like suet or hulled sunflowers or boss or nuts.