Brown-headed Cowbird Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Brown-headed Cowbirds aren't exactly everybody's favorite bird. Given their breeding strategy is to lay their eggs in the nests of other species, and let that species raise it's young (often at the expense of its own young), it's hard for people not to anthropomorphize that behavior and think of cowbirds as bad guys. My view on it has changed over the years...they're a native bird, doing what they do, and it's hard to fault them for it. I do admit though my own tolerance gets tested in a situation like photo #12 below, where a lone Brown-headed Cowbird chick in a tiny Chipping Sparrow nest ended up kicking out the two Chipping Sparrow young, and leaving the parents to raise it alone. Not a behavior most people can really understand and get behind!

While they're not a favorite bird for folks by any means, in the right light, male cowbirds can be uniquely attractive. This guy was caught taking a bath in a puddle in Minnehaha County, South Dakota in May of 2011.

Brown-headed Cowbird - Molothrus ater


Brown-headed Cowbird 1	Brown-headed Cowbird 2	Brown-headed Cowbird 3	Brown-headed Cowbird 4
May 9th, 2011	July 17th, 2004	May 9th, 2006	July 7th, 2008
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, S. Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Pactola Reservoir, South Dakota
Male cowbird bathing in puddle	Juvenile cowbird on barbed wire fence	Female cowbird perched in brush	Male cowbird foraging on the ground

Brown-headed Cowbird 5	Brown-headed Cowbird 6	Brown-headed Cowbird 7	Brown-headed Cowbird 8
May 21st, 2009	May 9th, 2011	July 5th, 2010	June 7th, 2020
Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Badlands National Park, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Female cowbird foraging on the ground	Male cowbird taking a bath in a puddle	Female cowbird hanging out on a barbed wire fence	Male cowbird on wooden fence post

Brown-headed Cowbird 9	Brown-headed Cowbird 10	Brown-headed Cowbird 11	Brown-headed Cowbird 12
May 5th, 2016	May 5th, 2016	May 10th, 2020	June 16th, 2020
Lincoln County, South Dakota	Lincoln County, South Dakota	Newton Hills State Park, South Dakota	Brandon, South Dakota
Male cowbird perched on barbed wire fence	Male cowbird perched on barbed wire fence	Male cowbird head-on in a tree	Baby cowbird in a Chipping Sparrow's nest

Brown-headed Cowbird 13	Brown-headed Cowbird 14
August 9th, 2020	August 9th, 2020
McCook County, South Dakota	McCook County, South Dakota
Male in an eastern red cedar full of fruit	Female perched in a dead tree top