Loved your description of the close encounter with
Imelda, Caroline.

I think cowbirds probably do have the ability to dodge
moving hooves when foraging around herds, and yours
could probably have dodged those bricks. Its persistence
is rather puzzling, though. Maybe it remembers a former
productive foraging relationship with a gardener.

Fledged cowbirds can eat seeds as well as insects
and other things, like the melon you mentioned. Many
seed-eating birds cannot digest seeds as nestlings
(goldfinches and some other finch like birds are the
exception) and their parents feed them insects. I read
somewhere that female cowbirds tend to parasitize
the nest of the same species that raised them, which
would tend to cut down on cases where the foster
parents aren't going to be bringing proper nutrition.

Chris Maack
Anchorage, AK
CMaack at compuserve.com