(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Daily Bucket. Brood parasitism. Spotted Towhee feeding fledgling Brown-headed Cowbird. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-08-09 Wow! In all my days I never would have thought I’d get to not only witness brood parasitism firsthand but also get the photo evidence proof. Well, You Never Know What You Might See It was back out to the brushy clearing spot over by Gansner Airport, Quincy, CA, for me this morning. I had a bunch of new wild bird seed (with peanuts this time!) to spread out for my feathered friends and so got to my spot about 6:45 this morning (Wednesday, August 7). 🐣 The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns. We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow. What is brood parasitism, in case you’re wondering? Brood parasitism is a subclass of parasitism and phenomenon and behavioural pattern of certain animals, brood parasites, that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, usually using egg mimicry, with eggs that resemble the host's. --Wikipedia Of all the birds in the world, none may be as clever and cruel as brood parasites. These opportunistic animals dump their eggs into another species’ nest to avoid wasting time and energy on childcare (some female parasites literally have a larger memory complex in their brain to help them remember and hone in on targets). Their life strategy is built on tricking other birds, so perhaps they’ve earned the nasty reputation that precedes them—some parasites’ very first act upon hatching is to kill their adopted “siblings.” This is survival of the fittest at its most ruthless, and with about 100 parasitic bird species out there, it seems to be working. --Audubon.org If you’re not well aware of all the fascinating (and somewhat macabre and even gruesome) aspects of brood parasitism, especially in birds, please go to the Audubon link in the foregoing paragraph and check out this entry. It is fascinating. It’s a bit of a long read, but well worth your time. Shorter, just watch this video from that link: I’m happy to be able to say I didn’t get to watch all the unpleasantness of my BHCO fledgling dispatching its host’s own legitimate young, but all the same we have to openly acknowledge that this is the way evolution, natural selection, has determined the way things are to be in regard to the Brown-headed Cowbird and other brood parasitic species. Therefore we should not be repulsed by this natural phenomenon. Here’s another video, this time the chick is a Brown-headed Cowbird. By the way, the BHCO is an “obligate” brood parasite, meaning it never makes its own nest or raises its own young. The Brown-headed Cowbird is a stocky blackbird with a fascinating approach to raising its young. Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks. … Brown-headed Cowbird lay eggs in the nests of more than 220 species of birds. Recent genetic analyses have shown that most individual females specialize on one particular host species. … Cowbird eggs hatch faster than other species eggs, giving cowbird nestlings a head start in getting food from the parents. Young cowbirds also develop at a faster pace than their nest mates, and they sometimes toss out eggs and young nestlings or smother them in the bottom of the nest. --All About Birds My photos of the Spotted Towhee feeding the Brown-headed Cowbird fledgling is “after the fact” of whatever went on in the nest; for what it’s worth there are many fledgling Spotted Towhee at this birding spot of mine. I just got lucky and happened to point my camera at the BHCO when it landed on the branch and then the Spotted Towhee came in, and to my astonishment when I reviewed my photos there in the field I realized I had caught this brood parasitism behavior in action. So here’s the sequence I came home with: These first three are just the BHCO fledgling on a branch by itself, before the adult SPTO arrived with the grub. I was just getting snaps, unaware of what was to transpire in just a few seconds. Then the adult Spotted Towhee arrives, and the fledgling BHCO is all “Gimme, gimme, gimme!” (Note that the Spotted Towhee has an insect or grub of some kind in its beak. A split second later I watched the BHCO take the food) Ahhhhh… says the imposter. Satisfied. For the moment, anyway. It was this shot that I realized what I had; the two birds as two distinctly different species is now apparent, and I Immediately recognized the Brown-headed Cowbird by the profile of its head and beak shape. I had just witnessed brood parasitism in action for the first time ever in real life. Other birds of the morning: House Finch, yellow-version male (I’m pretty sure) Black-headed Grosbeak, female Bushtit (I’m pretty sure) Spotted Towhee juvenile helping itself to one of the peanuts I scattered out today. Bewick’s Wren. I see at least one of these nearly every time I go out to this spot. I’m considering this a nice special catch of the day, a Warbling Vireo. This is my second-time-only for sighting and photographing this bird. And much later, on the way home, not birds, but when they’re only twenty feet away you just can’t pass up an opportunity like this. 😁 Incidentally, this street, and specifically the house at those black mailboxes in the upper right, is where I first lived when I moved to Quincy, still age five, in September of 1960. Here’s a photo of that house, not that it matters, but it does go with the previous photo. Taken September 2021. Eight bedrooms. A true storybook house. Just right for the little kid in me. OK, over to you. What’s been happening in your world, nature-wise? Let us know in the comments and if you have any photos please share them if you will, along with your location. Thanks! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/9/2261386/-The-Daily-Bucket-Brood-parasitism-Spotted-Towhee-feeding-fledgling-Brown-headed-Cowbird?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/