The other day I heard a bird going through an unusual repertoire of
calls. At first it sounded somewhat like a bluebird (we don't have
these around us). Then I heard it do a rattle call similar to that of a
hairy woodpecker. Then it started doing the "chink/squeak" calls of a
rose-breasted grosbeak. It kept flitting about the neighborhood,
finally settling in a pine out front, where I was able to confirm that
it was indeed a young ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. It was then I noticed it
doing wing-flutter begging. When I happened to look at our Yankee
Flipper sunflower feeder below in the same tree, I was very pleasantly
surprised to see an adult male grosbeak feeding. I experienced even
greater surprise, when the adult bird flew up to the young bird and
proceeded to feed it some of the seed it had been working on. We
haven't had grosbeaks in our yard since migration time. It was most
considerate of the male to bring its young to our yard!
Later that same day Sara Jane called my attention to a bird on our
clothesline. At first glance I thought it might be a house finch. When
it flew to the ground under our feeders, I could see that it was a young
COWBIRD. Seconds later an adult CHIPPING SPARROW landed next to the
cowbird and began feeding it. I (and others) have always wondered why a
much smaller bird like a chipping sparrow is unable to recognize that
the larger cowbird is not one of its own. (Related to this, I once saw
a REDSTART feeding a "giant" cowbird young!). Is it possible that the
birds do indeed know that the cowbird is not their species, but parental
instinct compels them to feed the young bird that was hatched and grew
up in their nest?!?!? All was not lost, though. The next day a pair of
chipping sparrows showed up with 4 young of the correct species!
Larry
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W. Larry Hymes
120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
(H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu
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