Subject: Strange family
Date: Jul 24 08:42:40 2004
From: Nancy - nelrjb at comcast.net


Thanks tweets,
it was a brown headed cowbird with a song sparrow for an adoptive mother. She was being run ragged the poor thing.
(sorry my response is so slow, computer was down for a week)
Nancy
Renton, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: David Parent DVM
To: nelrjb at comcast.net ; 'Tweets'
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 7:48 AM
Subject: RE: Strange family


Hi Nancy,



You probably saw a cowbird chick running its "adoptive" mother ragged. Although nest parasitism is a common strategy in cowbirds, we actually had a cowbird family making an honest living near our house this year - a cowbird mom feeding three kids.



Dave Parent, Freeland, WA mailto:dpdvm at whidbey.com



-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu [mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Nancy
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 6:25 AM
To: Tweets
Subject: Strange family



Hi Tweeters,

Yesterday there was the strangest pair of birds on the ground under our feeder. It was a chick begging for food from its parent. The chick was three times the size of the parent. The parent was clearly a song sparrow without a tail, very small and the chick was a pale taupe color with striping similar to a pine siskin but a huge bird. It was big and also quite fat. I was puzzled. Would the parent be able to fly properly without the tail and would she be feeding another birds chick? Or is there another explaination for this phenomenon?

Nancy

Renton