Subject: Do Cowbirds parasitize Song Sparrow Nests?
Date: Jul 10 08:01:49 2000
From: Michael Dossett - phainopepla at yahoo.com


Actually,

I read about a study (I forget where now) in which the
researchers found that Song Sparrows were the second
most heavily parasitized species by Brown-headed
Cowbirds. I think the Yellow Warbler was number one.
It was also mentioned that they had found as many as 7
cowbird eggs in one song sparrow nest.

Michael Dossett
Bothell, Washington
phainopepla at yahoo.com


--- Joaw9 at aol.com wrote:
> Greets Tweets --
> Yesterday while birding at Narbeck in South
> Everett I heard quite a
> commotion of high squeaky noises. I spotted what
> appeared to be a newly
> fledged cowbird begging and subsequently being fed
> by a song sparrow. I have
> a heard a lot of song sparrow noises in the past but
> never one like this
> fledgling was making. The youngster was definitely
> larger than the parent
> feeding it. The youngster was on a branch, no more
> than a couple feet off
> the ground, where I usually see song sparrows. When
> I looked in my field
> guides later I thought that the young song sparrows
> and the young
> brown-headed cowbirds look similar.
> Since song sparrows tend to nest close to the
> ground and cowbirds seem
> like higher up kind of birds I was wondering if this
> was possible. Or is it
> more likely that I confused the two younglings? Are
> song sparrow youngsters
> noticeably larger than their parents?
> Jo Waldron
> Everett, WA
> joaw9 at aol.com
> <A HREF="http://www.webreleaf.com/">Plant a tree
> </A>
> <A
>
HREF="http://www.ecologyfund.com/dynahtml/ecology/index.html">EcologyFund.
> com</A>


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