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Shiny cowbird? NJ (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter xyz99
- Start date
birdmeister
Well-known member
Female Brown-headed Cowbird.
This one was with Common Grackles, too.
Protection while feeding? It is probably a little early to spend the time looking for nests in which to dump eggs ...
Niels
Yes Niels, it was while they were feeding.
Common Grackles are a particularly mean bird.
I remember watching them destroy the unhatched eggs in a Mourning Dove's nest in a Silver Maple tree just off my deck a few years back. I'm not sure if a Cowbird's eggs would last very long in their nests.
Their own nests were in the Arbor Vitae around my lawn and they drove other birds out of it and took it over. The result was that we had an infliction of Common Grackles that year. The next year we had to remove a row of Arbor Vitae to have a drainage line repaired and they haven't returned in any big numbers since then.
Can't say I miss them much but I did get a some of great photos of the iridescence on a couple of them when the light was right.
Bob
Common Grackles are a particularly mean bird.
I remember watching them destroy the unhatched eggs in a Mourning Dove's nest in a Silver Maple tree just off my deck a few years back. I'm not sure if a Cowbird's eggs would last very long in their nests.
Their own nests were in the Arbor Vitae around my lawn and they drove other birds out of it and took it over. The result was that we had an infliction of Common Grackles that year. The next year we had to remove a row of Arbor Vitae to have a drainage line repaired and they haven't returned in any big numbers since then.
Can't say I miss them much but I did get a some of great photos of the iridescence on a couple of them when the light was right.
Bob
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They parasitize Common Grackles on occasion, though an internet search suggests it is not common. So the bird may have been raised by Grackles and "thinks it is one."
Jim
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