Brown-headed Cowbird Photos

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.