Brown-headed Cowbird / Molothrus ater

Four days ago, on 20 June 2016, I went for a drive SW of the city again. This time, I was thrilled to bits to see two male Bobolinks and a female. I had driven backwards and forwards along the road where I had seen them a few days ago, with no luck. I gave up and, instead, spent some time photographing a beautiful pair of Mountain Bluebirds. After a while, I told myself it was time to leave the Bluebirds in peace and go and see if there was any sign of a Bobolink. I had literally climbed back into my car and pulled forward maybe six feet, when a bird flew to a fence post. It looked bigger than a Savannah Sparrow, so I was curious. Turned out to be a male Bobolink, who gave me the chance for a few quick shots before flying away. Unfortunately, the sun was in a really bad place.

Time to go and photograph a Tree Swallow, female Red-winged Blackbird (with food in her beak for her babies) and a Snipe and then I returned to the pair of Bluebirds. This time, they had two brief visitors - a Brown-headed Cowbird, and a tiny Savannah Sparrow who insisted on trying to perch on the same fence post as the male Bluebird. It was kind of cute to see the two together.

After a while, I decided it really was time to head for home. While crossing the road to my car, I spotted a bird perched on top of a tree way down the road and discovered it was a Bobolink again. It spent a bit of time flying around with another male and a female, eventually flying to a fence post. I had never seen a female before, but recognized it from various photos I had seen online a few days ago. Females are a lot smaller than the males and very different colouring. Three quick photos and it was gone. One of the males stayed on a fence post for a little while, but I was looking into the sun and the light was horrible. All three birds took off across the field and stayed down in the grass and I knew this would be a good time to tear myself away and head happily for home. Normally, I don't get out this often, but I know that it won't be long before all the birds I saw today will have left. Also, this was the first day of summer, so I really wanted to spend a few hours outdoors. Unfortunately, everything else is getting neglected.

"The Brown-headed Cowbird is a stocky blackbird with a fascinating approach to raising its young. Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks. Once confined to the open grasslands of middle North America, cowbirds have surged in numbers and range as humans built towns and cleared woods." From AllAboutBIrds.

"They get their name from their close association with grazing livestock (and formerly bison), which flush up insects for the birds to eat." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/id