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 ...

Several people reported a strange sight at their feeders this past week. In all cases, a small bird was busily feeding a much larger begging bird. The smaller bird was indeed the parent. Unfortunately ...

Brown-headed cowbirds are plain Janes in the birding world, brown on brown. They don't look like much, but cowbirds are nonetheless impressive. They found a clever solution to a serious problem. Once ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.” ...

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 ...

Juveniles of Shiny Cowbird, a parasitic bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, were spotted in the Andean city of Quito, Ecuador, for the first time. This finding represents an ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...