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Updated: June 23, 2025
The cowbird belongs to the family of birds scientifically known as Icteridae, which includes such familiar species as the bobolinks, orioles, meadowlarks, and the various kinds of blackbirds, none of which, I am glad to say, are parasites. The name Molothrus has been given to the genus that includes the cowbirds.
The animals follow the tides and the seasons; they find their own; the fittest and the luckiest survive; the struggle for life is sharp with them all; birds of a feather flock together; the young cowbirds reared by many different foster-parents all gather in flocks in the fall; they know their kind at least, they are attracted by their kind.
"Oh, I see the water!" cried Dodo, "and the little house where we are going! Oh, look at the black birds flying over those bushes! Are those Cowbirds too? And there are more black birds, very big ones too, going over to the water, and more yet coming out of those stumpy little pines, and there are some yellow pigeons down in the grass! Do stop quick, Olive!
The cold draws all the birds of a species together. Dark hordes of clacking grackles pass by, scores of red-winged blackbirds and cowbirds mingle amicably together, both of dark hue but of such unlike matrimonial habits.
What I mean is this: In my rambles I have often found the cowbirds the first to give warning of the approach of a supposed danger. Having no domestic duties of their own, they can well secrete themselves in a tall tree overlooking the entire premises, and thus play the useful role of sentinel.
In order to get the desired results, in the spring of 1899 I secured a pair of cowbirds and placed them in a large cage, cared well for them, and supplied them with plenty of nesting material. To my surprise, the female built a nest, laid four eggs, hatched them, and reared the young, and on July twenty-eighth, young and old were given their freedom.
Later in the day the Muley Cow had a chat with a song sparrow a musical person who had a nest cunningly hidden in the center of a bush near the pasture fence. "What a pleasant family those cowbirds are!" the Muley Cow happened to remark. "They're so kind!" The song sparrow gave her a queer look. "Kind!" he echoed. The Muley Cow saw at once that he did not agree with her. "Yes!" she insisted.
She knew, then, that the song sparrow had told her the truth. "And I don't let cowbirds sit on my back not after they're grown up!" she snapped. As she spoke, the Muley Cow fetched the pert gentleman a smart smack with her tail. The blow caught him unawares and knocked him squawking upon the ground. At once his companions began to scold the Muley Cow.
"He called me 'Citizen Bird'! He said all well-behaved birds, who have their own nests, and belong to the guilds of the Brotherhood, are American Citizens and should be protected!" "How badly the Cowbirds must feel!" said the chorus. "Hip, hip, hurrah! for Citizen Bird and friendly House People!" drummed the Downy Woodpecker, beating away for dear life on a telegraph pole.
Our cowbird has been under observation for a hundred years or more; every dweller in the country must see one or more young cowbirds being fed by their foster-parents every season, yet no competent observer has ever reported any care of the young bird by its real parent. If this were true, it would make the cowbird only half parasitical an unheard-of phenomenon.
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