Cowbird chick







Shown above is a chipping sparrow feeding a much larger cowbird chick at our backyard feeder.

Cowbirds are the only North American native birds that always lay their eggs in other bird species' nests. There seems to be a fair amount of controversy surrounding cowbirds by people who think they have an impact on other bird species. Searching Google will turn up a variety of pro and con articles on this. I personally think they are interesting birds with an uncommon, but not unheard of, behavior (old world cuckoos do this too).

Chipping sparrows, or "chippies", are one of my favorite song birds. Though small, they sing up a storm in late spring with a cheerful song.

UPDATE: They were still feeding after I posted the above blog entry and I was able to get a better photo of the chippie actually feeding the cowbird chick. I inserted it into the photo above.

Posted: Sat - June 10, 2006 at 03:56 PM        

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