Although I’ve seen species as large as Red-winged Blackbird parasitized by cowbirds, I’ve been amazed at how often the victims are much smaller species. Several years back while atlasing in northern New Mexico, I often found Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Virginia’s Warblers feeding young cowbirds.During the second Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas, I photographed a female Ruby-crowned Kinglet repeatedly stuffing extremely small bugs into the gaping mouth of a begging cowbird. The kinglet’s head nearly disappeared in the mouth of the cowbird chick. Chuck Hundertmark Lafayette, CO > On Jun 27, 2016, at 11:49 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > Today while walking along my favorite part of the Mary Carter Greenway I > encounter an odd looking bird that I could not figure out. It was all brown > with fine streaks along the breast and belly but the bill was wrong for a > finch and it was too big. Then I noticed it was flapping around from branch > to branch frantically, and I noticed it was chasing a yellow warbler male and > constantly calling. I could not make sense of why this bird would be chasing > a warbler and calling like that. Finley both stopped on a Russian olive > branch and I was able to get a better view. I observed the warbler glean an > insect (likely a gnat) and take it lower down to the unknown bird and stick > it in the bird’s mouth. It finally came together then. This was a recently > fledged juvenile brown headed cowbird that the warbler believed to be its > offspring. It was certainly dwarfed by the cowbird. I have not seen this in > the wild before, I have one nature programs but that was it. Interesting > behavior to watch, not all that good for the warblers however. Hopefully > their population will not be to affected by this along the river. This was at > the mile marker 12, the dirt walking path goes through some woods that is a > favorite for warblers and other birds. Thought I would share this. > > Brian Johnson > > Englewood CO > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/e6a087cd-2a5e-475a-ae68-035ce6e3d871%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/e6a087cd-2a5e-475a-ae68-035ce6e3d871%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>.
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/C6C803D8-B34C-400E-A5F2-D2B33A9A4873%40gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
