Male Yellow Warbler
This male Yellow Warbler is ready to take up residence in your garden! Their abundance, friendliness, and usage of habitats in open areas and often near people help make them an easy target for Brown-headed Cowbirds. After the Yellows build their nest a female Cowbird may end up putting an egg in it as well. While some Yellow Warblers will end up raising this young bird to the detriment of its own, others will build another nest over the original parasitized one. It is always an odd sight to spot a huge Cowbird fledgling being fed by the little Yellow parent. But for now all this guy is...
Read MoreBrown-headed Cowbird Pair
Last week I saw my first Brown-headed Cowbirds of the year, one of the blackbird species well known for making their way north in March. Here you can see a pair feeding in grasslands with the female on the left and the male, sporting his brown head, on the right. The species is a brood parasite, laying their eggs in the nests of other species, with familiar backyard birds like the Yellow Warbler being a common victim. I have seen them feeding the comically enormous fledglings quite often! Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreGet outside and find Rusty Blackbirds
This gorgeous scene is on the trail at the Akeley Swamp Important Bird Area in Pennsylvania. It is a prime location to find Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) during migration and October is the right time to spot them. They can be found in wooded wetlands, marshes, ponds and agricultural areas mixed in with flocks of other species like the Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird. If you see any please enter them into eBird! Rusty Blackbirds are one of the fastest declining species in North America and we need all the data and information on them we can get to help...
Read More
