Its naming is in the colouring of its head. This is a male Brown-headed Cowbird. The female of this species is a demure gray in colour, but demure does not describe the behaviour of these unwanted birds in our feeder area. Cowbirds do not nest, rather the female lays its eggs in the nest of another species and leaves the rearing of its young to another.This male cowbird shown above is the first Cowbird that I recall seeing in Bird Alley for several seasons now, This particular bird appeared to be very hungry as it voraciously claimed the food in the birdfeeder
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These are really great pictures.It really shows the brown head.
ReplyDeleteThey are such interesting birds. You wonder why they do their eggs that way and when do the baby cowbirds come to realize that they are really Cowbirds and not something else?
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