Bird people..I need help

[Cathy_P]

Does anyone know the name of the bird that hangs around livestock (Ohio)? It's so funny to watch our horse grazing in the pasture with this bird sitting on his back and following him everywhere he goes.

[510picker]

Probably the same bird that we have in Indiana, interstingly enough named a Cowbird.

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/d...=&curPageNum=2

[skagitswimmer]

The Cowbird is actually a nasty. Doesn't build a nest or care for its young. Instead it lays eggs in the nests of other birds. When they hatch the cowbird chicks outcompete the other chicks or push them out of the nest so they get all the food themselves. The surrogate parents are oblivious to the fact that the big odd-looking chick doesn't exactly resemble either of them.

[FredG]

Around here we moslty have cattle egrets hanging around the livestock. They are white, long-necked and much larger than the cowbird.

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/d...=&curPageNum=1

[Cathy_P]

Very interesting. I'll have to try and get some pictures. It does look like a cowbird. It's amazing what nature goes through to preserve a species. I wonder why all the human children I know seem to be developing much larger feet than they did decades ago ;-)

[Jeffphoto]

Where's Anders? Isn't he "Lord of the Flyers" around here?

[MatsP]

Originally Posted by Jeffphoto

Where's Anders? Isn't he "Lord of the Flyers" around here?

Nothing against Anders' knowledge of birds, but I suspect he's better at Northern European species than the american ones. I've never heard of a Cowbird myself, and according to the site linked above, it's native to North America's only.

In Europe, we have a cuckoo that is a brood parasite (lays eggs in other birds nest), and there are also fish that "use" other fish's parenting skills to produce their young, Synodontis multipunctatus being one of them (it uses the "mouthbroding" cichlids in Lake Tanganyika to "foster" the young, and the Syno's larvae will eat the cichlid eggs before they are leaving the "foster parent"). It is definitely a different way to "look after" the young...

--
Mats

[skagitswimmer]

I hadn't heard of the cichlid.