The Cowbird lays its eggs in the nests of various other birds, distributing them about the neighbourhood.
So insistent is the young Cowbird and so persistently does it pursue the foster parent that it is well cared for and invariably thrives.
As soon as the young leave the nest the greedy Cowbird follows the little mother about the thickets, shouting loudly for food.
The egg, thus surreptitiously placed in another bird's nest, usually hatches two or three days before those of the foster mother, and the infant Cowbird thus gains an advantage which he is not slow to improve.
Larger than Cowbird (Molothrus ater) with which alone it is likely to be confused.
I can imagine no sight more strongly suggestive of a thoroly despicable nature than a female Cowbird sneaking thru the trees and bushes in search of a victim upon whom to shift the duties of motherhood.
The Cowbird invariably deposits her eggs in the nests of other birds.
While not common anywhere west of the Rockies, the Cowbird is no longer rare east of the Cascades, and it is making its appearance at various points on Puget Sound.
But it grows up a cowbird with all the inheritance of that peculiar tribe, and its brief contact with a superior race leaves no impress upon it.
How awkward and uncouth must thecowbird appear squatting on this fragile silken thing to lay her eggs!
It is a wary caution that leads the cowbird to choose the smaller birds for her victims.
For a time, perhaps, the youngcowbird is influenced by the habit of the bird that happens to mother it, whether this be a ground-sparrow or a tree-loving flycatcher.
In central Kansas red-wings are host to the Brown-headed Cowbird in a frequency of one parasitized nest out of nine; in northeastern Kansas the ratio is 1:25.
Of ten nests examined for eggs, five had at least one egg of the Brown-headed Cowbird; if it is assumed that each cowbird egg replaced one of the siskins, mean clutch-size is 3.
Then the young Cowbird grows so fast that it squeezes the little Sparrows dreadfully, sometimes quite out of the nest, and eats so much that they are half or wholly starved.
A Cowbird lays only one egg in each nest, but sometimes several visit the same nest in succession; and then the poor Sparrow has a hard time, indeed.
The clock Cuckoo is an imitation of the merry, heedless English bird, who lays her eggs in the wrong nests, as our Cowbird does.
So it is, my boy; but the Cowbird is one of the exceptions I told you about; and I am glad to say there are very few.
Yes, they are very uncomfortable indeed, and often starve to death; but you must wait to hear about that until we come to the Cowbird himself.
It is a most startling noise, but it certainly is not musical, though perhaps it pleases the Cowbird ladies; for if they have such bad taste in other ways, they doubtless like such harsh and inharmonious sounds.
Straight on she rode to the river meadows where the cowbird colonies lived.
He was so provoked at having been found napping that, when he heard their laughter and awoke, he grabbed the cowbird and threw him across the kitchen.
The young cowbird proved to be just what she had wanted.
Then, thecowbird had been sent away; and, as a last blow, she had been told to go to school.
Her ears were still ringing with her big brothers' laughter, and with the pitiless command that had driven the cowbird forth to the prairies again--a wing-clipped tramp and an outcast!
After that the young cowbird had been fed faster and more fondly than ever.
As she turned, very puzzled, from the shelf to the table, she saw the cowbird gravely walking about on the white oil-cloth.
The young cowbird called disconsolately again and again after the shadow of the flock was far away, making a moving blot across the darkening plains.
As she did so, the husky cry of the cowbird came from the bench behind the door.
Instead, she turned very white and crept back to bed again without a word, taking the cowbird with her, cuddled under her arm.
When she was only a rod or so from him, the cowbird tried to follow.
WHEN the sun stood over the farm-house and the frost was gone from the plains, the little girl climbed upon her pony's back and, with the cowbirdperched on her shoulder, started northward up the river.
WHEN the little girl came trudging along the road that evening on her way to the farm-house, she sat down for a moment opposite the stone on which the cowbird was perched.
The cowbird was no longer under suspicion, for the big brothers had not been able to fasten the guilt upon him, since his feathers were always as sleek and shining as the coat of a curried horse.
The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their grazing.
The bills of the bobolink and cowbird are short and conical, for they are conspicuous seed eaters.
Unhappily, the little Canada warblers are often cheated out of their natural rights, like so many other delightful song-birds, by the greedy interloper that the cowbird deposits in their nest.
This operation has been known to be twice repeated, until the nest became three stories high, when a persistent cowbird made such unusual architecture necessary.
The cowbird had probably been surprised in the act of violating the nest, and the wrens were giving her a piece of their minds.
There is no doubt that, in many cases, the cowbird makes room for her own illegitimate egg in the nest by removing one of the bird's own.
The young of the cowbird is disproportionately large and aggressive, one might say hoggish.
Every cowbird is reared at the expense of two or more song-birds.
The buzzard, the cuckoo, and the cowbird are the striking exceptions.
However, it is probable that this warbler is a rather uncommon victim, perhaps because the cowbird is not particularly common in the places where the warbler breeds.
Niedrach showed him a nest of this warbler that contained a young cowbird and one young warbler.
The cowbird is a persistent enemy of this warbler in spite of its hole-nesting habits; perhaps if the warbler nested in deeper holes it might find some relief from this pest.
This is probably an abnormal situation in which the cowbirdfills the nest with its own eggs, leaving little room for those of the warbler.
Everyone who has examined nests of this warbler in any number has found one or more eggs of the cowbird in some of the nests.
Starr says in his notes from Ontario: "Occasionally, when a cowbird usurps a nest, the birds continue building till the cowbird's egg is imbedded.
Twelve percent of the nests with eggs of the cowbird were deserted, but none in which the owner's eggs were also present.
This warbler is one of the very commonest victims of this parasite, and comparatively few of its nests are not visited at least once by a cowbird in regions where the latter is very common.
As many as four eggs of the Cowbird have been found in a single nest of this Warbler.
This is most unusual, but is due, as elsewhere stated, to the protection against these parasites afforded by the Red-winged Blackbirds which would not tolerate a Cowbird anywhere about the marshes.
And no respectable bird family likes to have a loutish young Cowbird to bring up with their own children.
When a lazy Cowbird lays an egg in somebody else's nest, the owner ought to be grateful to me for taking the egg out and eating it.
We then went off a short distance and watched developments, and to our surprise the little male bunting fed the cowbird first.
At last one day the parents find their darling has disappeared; their summer's work is finished; four cunning little vireo nestlings have met an untimely fate, and one arrogant young cowbird is well started upon his infamous career.
On telling the story to a friend, he remarked, "Well, how do you account for the foolish old man neglecting his own offspring and feeding the cowbird first?
The cowbird (Molothrus ater), which is a sort of parasite, does not build a nest of its own, but lays its eggs in the nest of some other bird.
We removed the cowbird, straightened up the nest, replaced the rightful owners of the house, and perched the cowbird nearby on a bush.
A new cowbird of the genus Molothrus with a note on the probable genetic relationships of the North American forms.
This subspecies of the Brown-headed Cowbird is common in Coahuila and breeds there.
This subspecies of the Brown-headed Cowbirdis an uncommon migrant in Coahuila.
This subspecies of the Brown-headed Cowbird is uncommon in Coahuila.
Unhappily, the little Canada warblers are often cheated out of their natural rights, like so many other delightful songbirds, by the greedy interloper that the cowbird deposits in their nest.
Such behavior early in the morning certainly would facilitate deposition of cowbird eggs.
Early in the nesting period the mere presence of a cowbird egg in the nest prior to the laying of the host's first egg leads to abandonment of the nest.
Cowbird Parasitism In this study the failure of 12 of 35 nests can be directly attributed to cowbird interference.
The percentage of cowbird eggs hatched in relation to the number laid is relatively low.
Eggs occasionally disappear from the nest prior to or during incubation, without subsequent addition of cowbird eggs.
Tell me, Kitty, is it true that Mrs. Cuckoo is no better than Sally Sly the Cowbird and goes about laying her eggs in the nests of other birds?
The Redeyes are working themselves to feathers and bone feeding that ugly young Cowbird while their own babies aren't getting half enough to eat," continued Jenny.
I had just a peep into that nest a few days ago and unless I am greatly mistaken Sally Sly the Cowbird has managed to impose on the Redeyes.
They're all related to Redwing the Blackbird, and Sally Sly the Cowbird belongs in the same family.
When that egg hatches out, that young Cowbird will be about twice as big as Chebec's own children," sputtered Jenny.
Have you seen Sally Sly the Cowbird around here this spring?
Even the young Cowbird in her nest had all he wanted.
Sometimes other birds come to help one who has a young cowbird to feed, and he grows big and strong.
The cowbird mother does not build a nest for her little family.
This bird is one of the few who will not bring up a cowbird baby.
Sometimes a cowbirdfinds the second nest, and then the warbler adds a third story.
Nests have been found three stories high, with a dried-up cowbird egg in each of the two lower stories.
While it is surprising that acute birds should allow themselves to be imposed on in this way, perhaps, after all, they look upon the cowbird as a kind of blessing in disguise; at least, he may not be an unmixed evil.
Has any one ever seen other birds driving the cowbird away from their breeding precincts, or charging him with desperate courage as they do the blue jays, the hawks, the owls, and other predatory species?
In most cases the number is two, but in the case of ground builders the cowbird seems to have little fear of overdoing her imposition.
I once found a bush sparrow's nest containing one cowbird and four little sparrows, all of which were in a thriving condition.
The males, it is said, show little discrimination in pecking the eggs, for they are just as likely to puncture the cowbird eggs as those of other birds.
One of these is called the Argentine cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis).
A young cowbird that I purloined from the nest and reared by hand did not prove a very pleasant pet.
Even after the youngsters have left the nest the mother cowbird does not assume the care of them, but still leaves them in charge of the foster parents.
Another bunting, having almost the same range, although a little more southerly, is the red-eyed cowbird, which is larger and darker than our common cowbird and has the same parasitical habits.
It may be a matter of surprise to many persons that there are twelve species and subspecies of cowbirds in North and South America, for most of us are familiar only with the common cowbird (Molothrus ater) of our temperate regions.
Again, standing within ten feet of him, I noticed the young bird's points, and again I was convinced that he was not a cowbird baby.
But this baby, unfortunately for the "wisdom of the wise," did not resemble the cowbird family.
Devotion to mates and children characterise most of the family, but we cannot overlook the cowbird that neither mates nor takes the slightest care of its offspring.
Why does the cowardly cowbird always choose a victim smaller than herself?
His morals are awful, for he makes violent love to any brownish-gray cowbird he fancies but mates with none.
Without the least spark of gratitude in its cold heart, a young cowbird grafter forsakes its over-kind foster parents as soon as it can pick up its living and remains henceforth among its own kin--of whom only cows could think well.
She knows that the yellow warbler is a gentle, amiable, devoted mother, who will probably work herself to death, if necessary, rather than let the big baby cowbird starve.
Probably every cowbird you see has sacrificed the lives of at least part of a brood of valuable, insectivorous songsters.
Scarcely is it finished before the skulking cowbird watches her chance to lay an egg in it that she may not be bothered with the care of her own baby.
Suppose the wicked cowbird comes back and lays still another egg in the two-storied nest: what then?
The cowbird builds no nest, while its cousin, the Baltimore oriole, is a famous weaver.
Two eggs of the cowbird and two or three of the towhee in a nest are common.
Twice I have found nests on which the mother towhee was serenely sitting with four eggs of the cowbird beneath her and none of her own.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "cowbird" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
