1266 Cows Birds

I like my bird feeder. It opens a window to the viciousness of nature.
It’s a dog eat dog world out there. By the way, have you ever seen a dog eat a dog? I think canines get a bad rap that way. There are more stories of human eat human. Canine cannibalism is pretty rare.
But that’s not to say animals aren’t capable of a range of human crimes. A bird I often see at my feeder is a great example. The cowbird.
It doesn’t look like a cow. It doesn’t group in herds. It’s a little finch-sized bird. The male is black with a brown head. The females are a dowdy dishwater beige. And apparently lazy in that whole mothering thing.
Because not only are cowbirds annoying. Not only don’t they feed well with other birds. They bully other birds into raising their eggs for them. And they do it using mafia-like methods.
Yep. The cowbirds are extortionists.
If you’re a finch, and you find a cowbird egg in your nest, you best go about sitting on the darn thing. If you don’t, your own little chickies are at risk.
The Finch hens aren’t confused. Cowbird eggs look entirely different from other eggs. They know it’s a cowbird egg. But they also know they better not remove the egg. Because the cowbird that laid it will come back and check. If the egg is gone, the cowbird will totally ransack the nest and wipe out all the other eggs in it.
So it’s a hatch my chick or else proposition. An ova they can’t refuse. The cowbird wiseguy. “If you don’t lay my egg, your egg...fuggetaboutit.”
That must be how they got their name. They don’t look like a cow, they cow other birds into submission.
America, ya gotta love it.