There is a black bird out there called a Brown-headed Cowbird. You can easily spot the bird. They're about cardinal sized with a jet black body and a head that is completely brown. The cowbird is native to the US but a lot of folks consider it to be a problem child.
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Brown-headed Cowbird
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The cowbird is considered a problem because it is also a "brood parasite." This means the female cowbird takes NO responsibility raising it's own chicks. In fact it will enter a nest box, remove one egg from the box and then... lay it's own egg.
The interesting part is the actual birdhouse owner (think bluebird, nuthatch, etc.) will raise the cowbird as part of its own brood. Most birds can't recognize that a different bird's egg is in its clutch. Thus it will raise it until it fledges and learns to feed itself.
If you are in your backyard and you see a bluebird feeding a cowbird you now know why.
Yesterday I was taking a picture of one of my nesting boxes and this brought up this blog post (see pic below). The cowbird egg is in the top right. I left it there. There are rules to native birds, even though the brown-headed cowbird is considered a pest, it is native and cannot be destroyed. (Not that I would destroy any of God's work but that another story.)
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| 3 bluebird eggs and 1 cowbird egg |
Nature is beautiful. Bringing nature to your backyard is the goal of our retail store "
The Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek" Let nature bring peace to your hectic life.
