Species: Brown-headed Cowbird
Most recent capture date: 8/6/2023
Age: less than five months old
Notes: Everyone’s favorite bird! Well, maybe not, but they’re an interesting species with odd adaptations. To find nests in which to lay their eggs and to know when to lay those eggs, female cowbirds search for nests within their territory and monitor the progress of those nests – the very same “nest searching” and “nest monitoring” that we ornithologists do in our research! At CCFS we have been catching the same female cowbird since 2019, so this may well be her baby; the last time we caught a hatch-year cowbird was back in 2016. This specific young cowbird was caught in the company of an adult Song Sparrow, which may be the bird who was raising it.