Greensboro Birds

Ah, the controversial brown-headed cowbird. A group of half a dozen briefly descended on my feeder both yesterday and this morning. The cowbird is a brood parasite, causing some to decry it as an inherently evil and undesirable bird, especially because of its success in parasitizing the nests of such birds as the endangered Kirtland’s [...]

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That’s our Northern Cardinal buddy Nosferatu on the left. He lost his head feathers back in June, which is a common yet mysterious thing to happen to Northern Cardinals (and occasionally Blue Jays). For the past few days he’s been busy feeding this Brown-headed Cowbird fledgling that hatched in his family nest. I’ve seen several [...]

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There seems to be a second batch of Brown-headed Cowbird fledglings buzzing around. I heard this one today before I saw it: “BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!” “Was that a cowbird?” I asked Josh, who had a better view of the balcony. “Yep.” (Josh is rarely a man of few words, so his brevity was a little [...]

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This is the scene every few minutes outside our window: Song Sparrows feeding their Brown-headed Cowbird fledgling. Birders know that the cowbird is a parasitic breeder, meaning the females lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, usually removing one of the host bird’s eggs in the process. The cowbird egg hatches a day [...]

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