It was a quiet, gloomy morning at the feeding station when a pair of cowbirds showed up. Cowbirds got their name because of their association with cattle where they like to feed even on the insects on a cow’s back.

They are the smallest member of the blackbird family. The male we were watching was a brown-headed cowbird. His head and neck was a GI type of brown and his body was gray with some dark streaks. His mate, just a little smaller, was gray with streaks all over and with no brown.

The cowbird is despised by other birds in that it doesn’t build a nest or even steal one; it just lays one egg in some other birds nest that is already in use. The speckled egg can be spotted but is usually ignored by the female nest owner.

A cowbird’s egg usually hatches in about ten days and because it is a bigger chick, it takes over. As the owner of the nest feeds and mothers it; it will kill the smaller chicks by starving them; stomping them to death; or just pushing them overboard right out of the nest. Of all the birds I know, only the cuckoo does the same.

Another member of the family is the bob-a-link which holds the record for the most flight miles in a year. In summer, the bob-a-link is found in the northern states but it winters in Argentina a full 5,000 miles away.

Despite their cruelty, all the members of the blackbird family are helpful to us because of the large amount of insects they devour. This time of year I sure enjoy them hanging around my yard and I hope they are real hungry.

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