Called also: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD;
COW BUNTING; [BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, AOU 1998]
Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin.
Male -- Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast glistening
brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish.
Female -- Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and
streaked with paler shades of brown.
Range -- United States, from coast to coast. North into British
America, south into Mexico.
Migrations -- March. November. Common summer resident.
The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in
the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their
grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or two of the nose of a cow
or heifer, walking briskly about like a miniature hen, intently watching for
its insect prey.
Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. Polygamous and utterly
irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other
feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. In
the breeding season an unnatural mother may be seen skulking about in the
trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests in which to place a surreptitious egg,
never imposing it upon a bird of its size, but selecting in a cowardly way a
small nest, as that of the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there
leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some
already burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the
nest of the red-eyed vireo in order to place one of its own in its place. Not
finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on the ground, trusting
them to merciless fate, or, still worse, devouring them. The eggs are nearly
an inch long, white speckled with brown or gray.
Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they are able
to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock of their own
kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life and character, the
cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping whistle, followed by a few
sharp notes.