Brown-headed Cowbird

Bird Directory

Brown-headed Cowbird

Click on picture to hear bird sounds.

Bird Name: Brown-headed Cowbird

Field Marks: Larger than a sparrow, the Brown-headed Cowbird is a slim bird. The male is glossy, greenish-black with a brown head while the female is brownish gray or dark brown. Look for a short, thick conical bill.

Feeder Food: Mixed seeds

Natural Food: Seeds, berries, insects

Behavior: The Brown-headed Cowbird is parasitic because the female lays her egg in another bird's nest and then leaves them to the foster parent to incubate and raise. In order to lay its own eggs, it will push the eggs, which were layed by the owner of the the nest, out. This is causing great losses in the numbers of native songbirds. The cowbird may do this in up to twelve different nests. You will find the Brown-headed Cowbirds in tight flocks outside the nesting season.

Song: (bubbly, creaking) bublee-lee come see.

Pictures and sounds were reproduced by permission.

Sources:

Alden, Peter and Brian Cassie, National Audubon Society Feild Guide To New England, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998.

Dawe, Neil and Karen, The Bird Book, New York: Workman Publishing, 1988.

Elliott, Lang, Know Your Bird Sounds (cassette), Minocqua, WI: NorthWord Press, Inc., 1994.

Forbush, Edward Howe, Birds of Massachusetts, Norwood, Massachusetts: Norwood Press, 1929.

Reed, Chester R., Bird Guide: Land Birds East of the Rockies, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951.

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Brown-headed Cowbird Click on picture to hear bird sounds.	Bird Name: Brown-headed Cowbird
	Field Marks: Larger than a sparrow, the Brown-headed Cowbird is a slim bird. The male is glossy, greenish-black with a brown head while the female is brownish gray or dark brown. Look for a short, thick conical bill.
	Feeder Food: Mixed seeds
	Natural Food: Seeds, berries, insects
	Behavior: The Brown-headed Cowbird is parasitic because the female lays her egg in another bird's nest and then leaves them to the foster parent to incubate and raise. In order to lay its own eggs, it will push the eggs, which were layed by the owner of the the nest, out. This is causing great losses in the numbers of native songbirds. The cowbird may do this in up to twelve different nests. You will find the Brown-headed Cowbirds in tight flocks outside the nesting season. Song: (bubbly, creaking) bublee-lee come see.