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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Q: Earlier in the summer I saw a very small bird feeding a much larger one. Is this something that happens — do some kinds of birds help out other species? A: This does happen in the bird world, but ...

Brown-headed cowbirds have shown up at my bird feeder a couple times over the last few weeks. Fleeting visits, they were there and then gone. I have always liked them because they seem so exotic - ...

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 ...