I’ve seen several baby birds at the feeders so far including chickadees, starlings and some adorable Downy Woodpecker fledglings. But unfortunately, some of the neighborhood birds were tricked into hatching cowbirds.
My friend lives about a half-mile away and we each have cardinal parents raising a cowbird. So far neither us of has seen the parents with an actual cardinal fledgling.
I was amazed at how quickly the cowbird fledglings found each other to hang out with. These youngsters have different “host” parents:
Cowbirds usually dispose of one egg in the host nest before depositing one of their own. Cowbird eggs hatch faster and the nestlings grow faster, so they get a head start on their “siblings” which can be bad news as they all compete for food from their parents. The true nestlings can get crowded out and even starve to death.
Some birds recognize cowbird eggs in their nests. Yellow Warblers are too small to dispose of the egg so they build a new floor on top of the old one and lay all new eggs.
When Chipping Sparrows spot a cowbird egg they may abandon their nest entirely and look for a new nest location. Cowbirds that hatch in a goldfinch nest may not survive because they need more protein than a goldfinch parent provides. Unfortunately Northern Cardinals don’t recognize cowbird eggs so they are very susceptible to cowbird parasitism.
Cardinal eggs need to be incubated for longer than cowbird eggs so there’s still a chance I’ll see a cardinal nestling. But it’s also possible that the cowbirds won this round and we won’t have any new cardinals in the neighborhood this year.