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04/22/11, 02:37 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Beautiful Ozarks
Posts: 1,394
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What bird lays egg in another's nest?
We have our resident Phoebes back under our porch roof and they have built their nest. I just went out to take a picture of it and saw that there were four light cream colored eggs (theirs) and then a fifty dark speckled egg there.
I thought that Cuckoos did that & then their baby would kick out the other birds. But when I looked up Cuckoos in the field guide, it said that American Cuckoos don't do that. So now I'm preplexed....what bird dumped thier egg into the Phoebe's nest?
(working on getting a pic here, be back soon)
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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson
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04/22/11, 02:42 PM
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Off-The-Grid Homesteader
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Upstate NY
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Cowbirds, are rumored to do that. None of my bird books confirm that though.
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04/22/11, 02:45 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Beautiful Ozarks
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I just did an internet search & it also said cowbirds. Going to see if there is a description of the egg.
Now my delema.....what to do with the egg????
(I have an incubator....wonder if DH would kill me for raising a cowbird????)
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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson
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04/22/11, 02:47 PM
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Wasza polska matka
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: zone 4b-5a
Posts: 6,912
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make a tiny omelet
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I'd rather have one Chewbacca than an entire clone army.
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04/22/11, 03:55 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Beautiful Ozarks
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After some consideration, I think I'm going with your suggestion beaglebiz.
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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson
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04/22/11, 04:05 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Southern NY
Posts: 2,330
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I thought BlueJays did that also
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04/22/11, 04:24 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Central WI
Posts: 5,399
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the cuckoo
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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.
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04/22/11, 04:26 PM
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sheep & antenna farming
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: far SW Wisconsin USA
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Google "cowbird egg", there are some photos you should see. I would just happen to drop the egg on the ground rather than make a a tiny omelet. This is a pest bird. We had a mother sparrow one time feeding her babies that had just fledged from the nest. One was a lot larger than the rest and probably came from the cowbird female in the same area.
Peg
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04/22/11, 04:30 PM
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Brown headedb cowbird commonliy lay in other nests. They also lay a speckled egg as you describe. Wood duck hens will often lay in another wood duck nest. I also disagree with your field guide as I've WATCHED a cuckoo lay in a cardinal nest beside my windo
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04/22/11, 04:32 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Beautiful Ozarks
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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson
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04/22/11, 04:49 PM
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Banned
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolynRenee
We have our resident Phoebes back under our porch roof and they have built their nest. I just went out to take a picture of it and saw that there were four light cream colored eggs (theirs) and then a fifty dark speckled egg there.
I thought that Cuckoos did that & then their baby would kick out the other birds. But when I looked up Cuckoos in the field guide, it said that American Cuckoos don't do that. So now I'm preplexed....what bird dumped thier egg into the Phoebe's nest?
(working on getting a pic here, be back soon)
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Cow birds do it..they look like a big grackle. They will lay their eggs in a robins nest and whenthey hatch (Robins and cowbirds) the cowbirds young are bigger and stronger than the robins, therefore the robins get starved when food is brought to the young. Had one in my pear orchard and I watched the entrie process with my bionoculars----one by one the robins died and were toosed out of the nest by the mother....sad.
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04/22/11, 04:56 PM
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Chicken Mafioso
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: N. TX/ S. OK
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There are a lot of pics here showing cowbird eggs in the nests with other eggs:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...oq=cowbird+egg
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JESUS WAS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT
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04/22/11, 09:36 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,862
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When I noticed a larger egg in a bluebird nest when we lived near Holt MO, I called the Martha Lafitte Thompson Nature Center to ask about it. The lady who took my call suggested I leave the egg on the ground for "some deserving snake." I was drinking iced tea at the time. Nearly choked before I could swallow it.
Cowbird.
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04/22/11, 09:45 PM
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: N.W. Ontario
Posts: 724
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 I don't like those cowbirds!
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Formerly BrahmaMama 
"Firelight will not let you read fine stories, but it's warm, and you won't see the dust on the floor"
Anonymous Irish quote
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04/22/11, 10:01 PM
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 17,225
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They are an interesting example of God's creation. They eat a lot of bugs and many weed seeds.
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Libertarindependent
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04/22/11, 10:41 PM
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Retired farmer-rancher
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I worked one summer for fish and game on a bird banding project. The chief biologist always told the new guys, he would pay $10 if we brought him a cowbird with a broodpatch. (This is a bare spot under the belly feathers that keeps the eggs warm.) No one ever collected the $10, cowbirds don't sit on a nest, they farm this job out to other birds.
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* I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one. .*-
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04/23/11, 12:25 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2002
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Supposedly there's one bird's nest where you will not find a cowbird egg and that's rose-breasted grosbeak. Cowbirds also have been blamed for declining orchard oriole populations. Their legal status is SOS without a permit for landowners here. I don't waste them as they end up as compost.
Martin
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04/23/11, 02:05 PM
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loves all critters
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Union Co ,Florida
Posts: 1,049
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Mockingbirds will also do this.
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04/23/11, 03:06 PM
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Brenda Groth
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7,817
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just remove the egg..no need to leave that stress for the other birds
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04/23/11, 03:25 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: South Central Wisconsin
Posts: 14,801
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Don't feel sorry for their egg, feel sorry for the rest of the eggs. Female cowbird quite probably already had removed a host egg to make room for hers. She then may lay an egg day after day in a new nest each time and do that up to 40 times in a season. And, a cowbird egg has shorter incubation time and the chick will evict anything else that hatches.
Martin
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