A late season chick. But what species?
Here comes a parent… oh-oh. 
Chipping Sparrow.
And Brown-headed Cowbird. 
Brown-headed Cowbirds are brood parasites. They lay their eggs in the nests of other species. The hatchling may kill off the hosts’ own offspring. 
I’ve never seen this in action. 
BHC’s lay their eggs “in 220 species of birds. Recent genetic analyses have shown that most individual females specialize on one particular host species.“
And another, seen two days later not so far from the first scene. Couldn’t see who was feeding this one, but it was pretty small, and may very will have been another Chipping Sparrow.
How Now, Cowbird?
Published July 31, 2019 Fieldnotes 5 CommentsTags: birding, birds, Brooklyn, Green-Wood
5 Responses to “How Now, Cowbird?”
- 1 Trackback on August 16, 2019 at 7:01 am
- 2 Trackback on January 30, 2022 at 8:00 am
Backyard and Beyond 
power barons of avian world.
There certainly are a lot of metaphors to be found here.
Very exciting. Maybe you could make a documentary expressing your love of nature. A thought.