I am not sure what the blue birds are at the top, can someone tell me?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(291)
-
▼
March
(27)
- The birds at the feeder today
- Hi have you seen me lately???
- Fish Tank
- Messy winter
- A robin and a squirrel
- I planted the seeds
- Ear Mites no more
- This is our fish guy!
- I re-did a couple pictures
- Woody Woodpecker
- Trying my new camera out
- my Little man
- Finches
- Fish tank update
- Harley & Jethro
- Birds
- Silly
- Somethings growing.......
- Fred Sanfords Yard???
- Plants and Fish
- Yuk
- Here Kitty
- Fish tank is filled and waitin for some new occupants
- Stained with 2 coats of Onyx
- Fish tank base is made
- Upstate NY this weekend, they have a little bit of...
- Can you find the 2 new items?
-
▼
March
(27)
10 comments:
They might be the brown-headed cowbird.
If they are, they are not a very desirable bird since they lay their eggs in the nest of other birds. The babies hatch first and kick the mother bird's real babies out of the nest, leaving the mother to feed the invader. Over a period of time, this will diminish the populations of the desired birds.
TX has a full-fledged program to trap and kill them. I took the course and was certified to do so out at Coyote Run. It was not a pleasant task to prove that you could wring the neck of a bird in order to get certified ....
I didn't know that these birds could be that far north - I was told that they followed the cow herds - hence the name.
Yep..those are the evil cowbirds!! They are gluttons for the bird feeders. The females are more drab. I've noticed more & more of them every year, well, when I had my feeders up. Mine are empty now, and I feel so bad. The chickadees are hanging out in the hibiscus tree fussing at me for more food. Stupid bears...
Oh my goodness those sound like very Bad Birds. How come they are up in our neck of the woods???
Because that's the nature of an invasive species..to invade & settle new habitat. They are bad little birdies indeed, though personally I don't have the heart to kill them, just cuss 'em out good while brandishing my fist! That shows them!
... or blue grosbeaks, or indigo buntings... Cowbirds generally aren't blue, at least around here.(they're cheerful)
I will consider them like pesky squirrels! I don't like them either but they are living creatures that have to eat too. It does not look like we have a shortage of birds around either so maybe they are not hurting any other bird species.
I checked some online pictures of cow birds and the one on Wikipedia does look a lot like my picture. Priscilla, I had an indigo bunting last year on my blog, if you go back a ways you can see it, well thats what I thought it was, maybe this year it will come back!
Update...I just learned there are two kinds of cowbirds:
1. Molothrus bonariensis--Shiny Cowbird (what you have) and
2. Molothrus ata--Brown Headed Cowbird (what I occasionally see). (That Google Image Search, ain't it great!)
Invasives are a real problem. I feel more kindly toward bird invasives than plant ones, esp the Japanese Knotweed which is taking over many waste places here. I was talking with someone in the LI Sierra Club on a walk yesterday; they are planning a program of invasives eradication which I will probably join.
One of our evil invasive plants is Purple Loosestrife, while it is visually striking it is up to no good! Also, I believe, water hyacinth is invasive as well.
Kris, the cowbirds I get over here aren't blue, but black with a brown head. Are you sure they look blue in real life or is it just the way they photographed?
I was concerned that I might have mis-identified the cowbird - especially so since I had actually seen them up so close, even held one in my hand.
So I went back to my Sibley's and my other field guides to check and then on to the internet ....
I am sure that the bird pictured in Kristen's photos is the brown-headed cowbird. They do have a brown head and a black body - but the black has an iridescent sheen to it that causes the color to look like a shiny dark teal to dark green to even a dark blue, depending upon the light.
yes I think the way Biddie described them, they are black but have a blueish color to them, kind of like grackles do have that green in them.
Post a Comment