Cowbird mothers abandon their eggs in the nests of other bird species, but the chicks somehow manage to find their flock and learn what they really are. By Elizabeth Preston In P.D. Eastman’s classic ...

This is the story of three bird species and how they interact. The brown-headed cowbird lays its eggs in other birds' nests and lets them raise its young -- often at the expense of the host's ...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The brown-headed cowbird is bad news for other songbirds because it lays its eggs in the nest of other birds and takes no part in incubating its eggs or raising the young. This ...

If you've heard anything about cowbirds, it's likely been some harsh criticism, since the birds have a bad reputation: Rather than take care of their own chicks, they drop their eggs into the nest of ...

Q. Do brown-headed cowbirds select the nest of another bird to lay eggs in based on which species raised them as a nestling? In other words, if a cowbird is raised as a chick by a red-winged blackbird ...

Every spring I get reports from astonished readers describing a small bird feeding a much larger, obviously begging chick. Can you explain this, readers ask. The answer is “brood parasitism.” ...

ALTAMONT, N.Y. -- Anyone who watches birds knows many species can be lumped into the blackbird family. The red-winged blackbird and the common grackle are the most obvious members of this group, but ...

Cowbirds have an unsavory reputation. As many readers know, they make no nests. Females lay their eggs in the nest of some host species, which can be almost anything from a warbler to a crow. The host ...

The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater; cowbird) is unique among North American blackbirds (Icteridae) because it is managed to mitigate the negative effects on endangered songbirds and economic ...

FORT SILL, Okla. -- The brown-headed cowbird is one of those native birds that wasn't raised with good manners. And that's a problem for the black-capped vireo. You see, the vireo is an endangered ...

Over a door in the quiet yard of a historic home in Newburyport, a drama is unfolding. A house finch couple built a nest, the female laid her eggs, and then a brown-headed cowbird showed up. Since ...