Go Away Birds
(click on a photo to enlarge)
There’s a bird in Africa called the Go-Away Bird. It gets this name from the “go away” sound of its call. Strange label for a beautiful bird. We actually got to see some in Tanzania.
White-bellied Go-Away Bird (Corythiaxoides leucogaster)
But I digress. This post is not about African Go-Away Birds but about birds I wish would go away.
It was inevitable, I guess, that not all of our feeder birds were going to be welcome visitors. So, after the wonderful influx of tanagers, buntings, grosbeaks and warblers came the cowbirds and, I can barely type the name, House Sparrows.
It’s hard to believe that the same family that gives us beautiful birds like meadowlarks, orioles and blackbirds also contains those dreaded nest-parasites — the cowbirds. Only two species of cowbirds are found in North America and we have both of them!
It didn’t take long before a herd (I can call “cow”birds a herd, can’t I?) of over a dozen Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) arrived at the feeding station. Females arrived first, prancing around with their heads pointed to the sky, tails raised and were soon joined by the squeaky, gurgling-voiced males. They settled right in. Nesting birds beware. One can’t help wonder what and how many different species of birds raised all of these cowbirds for not one was raised by its own mother.
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), female
The modus operandi of the female cowbird is to sneak into a nest while the owner is taking a break, usually early in the morning, and lay a single egg. The unsuspecting female returns to her nest and in most cases does not recognize the aberrant egg is not her own. Some species will abandon their nest or, in the case of Yellow Warblers, will build a new nest on top of both her own eggs and the cowbird egg. If all of the eggs hatch, the cowbird chick will dominate the clutch getting most of the food especially in the case of smaller birds like warblers. The other chicks will usually starve to death. Because she has no other responsibilities the female cowbird is an egg-laying machine and can lay over several dozen eggs in a nesting season!
The male Brown-headed Cowbird has no responsibilities whatsoever. After mating with one female he’s free to mate with another and another. No monogamy here. No nest to guard, no nestlings or fledglings to feed. Maybe this is where the term “free as a bird” came from. When you see a male of this species, it’s pretty obvious how this bird got its name.
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), male
Just yesterday this bird showed up at the feeding station. You might want to call her a “Pied Cowbird” but actually she’s a Brown-headed Cowbird lacking pigment in some of her feathers. She was being courted by several males so maybe this look has an advantage.
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), partial albino female
Bronzed Cowbirds (Molothrus aeneus) are larger and have a much smaller range than the ubiquitous Brown-headed Cowbird. They’re summer residents from southwest Texas to extreme southeastern California. Beside their size, they can easily be identified by their bright red eye. As in Brown-headed Cowbirds, the female is a dull gray-brown. So far, we only have a lone male visiting daily. In one way, this is unfortunate because the male’s courtship display is something to see. Bronzed Cowbirds parasitize many bird species but tend to favor orioles. We have plenty of orioles here so I expect to see a female any day now.
Bronzed Cowbird (Molothrus aeneus), male
It was quite a shock to see first, a female House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and shortly thereafter a male. I suppose it was inevitable even if after 19 years in Southern Maryland we never had one of these undesirables at our feeders. Our good luck has run out. This means we’ll have to keep an eye on our nest boxes. We all know what these birds look like so no photos.
One can hope that these birds will go away but realistically they’re probably here for the nesting season and in the case of the House Sparrows, permanently.
Published by Arlene Ripley on May 18th, 2009 Tagged Arizona, Birds, Butterflies, Cochise County, Nature, Plants, Wanderings
