#female cowbird

[thomas--bombadil]

A content-looking female cowbird. 

[lunarlotuscove]

Pair of Brown headed cowbirds on the poles

Wednesday April 17th 2024 3:27pm

[alcnfr]

There was a fine crowd of Brown-Headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) at the feeders this afternoon.

[yells-of-the-not-so-danged]

birb

[great-and-small]

Lots of folks dislike cowbirds due to their macabre start to life, but even their most ardent detractors can't deny that the behavior of this species is remarkable. The fact that every bird in a flock of hundreds has been raised by different unwitting songbird "parents" is truly mind-boggling. For these babies to leave their nests and be able to find, recognize, and understand one another is a natural marvel of instinct and intuition.

Pictured here, a tender moment between a male and female Brown-headed cowbird.

[mostlybirdsandphotos]

impress? lovely feathers, yes? impress? attracted to me? good feathers?

eep!

(male brown-headed cowbird attempting to woo a female)

[ostdrossel]

Do you have special songs,

smells or sounds that instantly transport you to a time or place? These guys do that for me. Once I am hearing them, I know spring is on the way. Male Redwinged Blackbirds usually appear first, along with Grackles, but yesterday, I also saw the first females, as well as some Cowbirds. So despite the snow this morning, spring is really unfolding!

[todaysbird]

Today's bird is this female brown-headed cowbird!

[chickadooz]

A whole bunch of dark-eyed juncos for all you junco appreciators out there. I only saw male ones that day, but I suspect the females weren't far behind or were perhaps busy with nests/eggs. I'll surely see more of them through the summer assuming they don't get ousted by the cowbirds again this year.

🏷️ • 🖼️ • ☕ • 🛒 • please reblog if you enjoyed this post!

[swede1952]

Cowbirds at the Birdbath

Last spring, these three brown headed cowbirds ((Molothrus ater) stopped by for a drink of water. There are two females and a male, the females are a lighter brown, the male has an black body and dark brown head. The bird on the left is looking up at an unseen bird feeder, perhaps thinking about flying up there. You know, the females are the type to drop their kids off for other birds to watch them and never come back. They are known brood parasites; they lay their eggs in the nests of other species and take off, they offspring are raised by the other species, or not. Nature is interesting.

My photo gallery contains more that 1000 images that I've chosen to share. Most are there for their visual appeal but there are a few novelty images. You can check out my gallery at:

[aplpaca]

my like actually genuine tips if you wanna get better at identifying birds is to download the Merlin app and visit r/whatsthisbird on reddit and just scroll around every once in a while

Merlin can give species ID suggestions from photos, descriptions, and sounds, and also bc you can just scroll through little info cards for birds by region. And both of those are really neat and helpful. 10/10 would recommend. (Also it's free)

And then r/whatsthisbird is a subreddit where people can post bird photos (and sometimes drawings and descriptions) they want identified, and then the members will comment what species it is. The sub is well moderated by actual ornithologists, so pretty much everything gets ID-ed correctly (and even without the mods comments, the majority are correctly identified pretty quickly, including for birds outside North America and Europe).

But I've found it really helpful to just scroll around in it, bc you end up picking up on various birds' appearances pretty quickly, and also getting a sense of ID from less-than-perfect photos of birds, and also seeing photos of various life stages and dimorphisms (ex: male vs female cowbirds, fledglings vs adult cowbirds, etc), which can be helpful irl where u might not get the best look at something or when most of the results that come up on google are all males in a dimorphic species. Plus the askers on the sub are of a wide range of expertise levels, so you get a good mix of exposure to poeople asking about common backyard birds like sparrows and blue jays to less commonly seen ones like various herons and raptors to people asking for an ID in which the two possible species look pretty much exactly the same minus the placement of like,,, one color bar or something like that.

But ye. Merlin and r/whatsthisbird for casual bird ID learning

[givemebishies]

I love birds and I also love ABM

So here are some birds I imagine as the wings of some of the angels!

Lucifer - Vinaceous Rosefinch

Michael - Brow-Headed Cowbird (female)

Rosier - Sulfur Crested Cockatoo

Asmodeus - Pink Cockatoo

Baal - Common Grackle

Uriel - African Firefinch

Raphael - Turquoise Green Cheek Conure

Gabriel - Blue Ground Dove

Phanuel - Kakapo

Dina - Common Starling

I can only post 10 images on mobile but I plan on doing more! :>

I might also change my mind if I find better options but it’s what I thought fits atm lol

[lunarlotuscove]

Lil cowbird

Tuesday, April 30th 2024 426 p.m.

[alcnfr]

A pair of damp Brown-Headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) on the stump platform feeder on a wet and dismal morning...

[willibeest]

Female brown-headed cowbird perched atop a fence (May 25, 2024)

[great-and-small]

I didn’t have quite as much time for birding this year because of work but I’m hopeful that will change next year since I’m switching jobs! Still very grateful to get several new lifers under my belt (including the common yellowthroat and Virginia rail). Here are my favorite bird shots of 2024!

I sincerely hope 2025 brings you lots of fantastic wildlife sightings!