Brown-headed Cowbird

Notes:

Showing a male and female Brown-headed Cowbird at Manning Park Lodge, BC. Originally a prairie, grassland bird in North America, they have spread their range to include most of the areas where humans have cleared as well. They mate and then the female lays her eggs in the nest of another host species and does not return. The host species (in BC often a Yellow Warbler pair) then incubates the egg, raises the young at the expense of their own young and thus wastes their effort as far as procreating. Yellow Warblers have been known to cover over a Brown-headed Cowbird egg and start another brood themselves. Smart bird!