“Nature is cruel, but we don’t have to be.”
Dr. Temple Grandin, American professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and advocate for the autistic community
It was about a week ago that they showed up at the feeder; a tiny dark-eyed junco and the fledgling baby it was caring for.
We’ve got quite a few species of birds in our yard and at this time of year most of them are busy caring for their young. There’s a pair of hairy woodpeckers with a single chick. We’ve got baby sapsuckers, sparrows, chickadees, finches, grosbeaks, robins, phoebes, and the list goes on!
So why did we pay particular attention to the junco and its baby? Because the baby dwarfed the little junco!
One of the birds who take up summer residence here is the brown-headed cowbird. It’s quite a pretty bird really, with its sleek shiny black body and chocolate brown head. Its song is simple but sweet. And it’s a lazy freeloading parasite.
Literally.
It’s natural…
Cowbirds are a parasitic species that don’t bother building their own nests or raise their own young. Instead they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, even if the bird is much smaller than itself, as in the case of our little junco. The eggs are incubated alongside any others in the nest and when they hatch the cowbirds are raised alongside the other babies. That’s assuming the other eggs survive.
Cowbirds will peck holes in the other eggs to ensure their own eggs survive. And because cowbirds develop so quickly, once they hatch their growth outpaces the host’s babies who then go hungry or are smothered or simply pushed out of the nest.
I can’t tell you if any of the junco’s own eggs survived alongside the cowbird. I doubt it. It seems to be all the little junco can do to keep that ever hungry cowbird fed and I have wondered how the junco finds time to feed itself.
Photo from Project Noah taken by Ron Caswell
The parallel…
I’ve known a few people who remind me of cowbirds.
They are the ones who are happy to let others do the heavy lifting; the ones who are content to sit back and do the bare minimum while others make sure the jobs get done.
They are why – at least part of the reason why – I hated group work in school. There always seemed to be at least one kid in every group who did little or nothing and yet still got the same grade as the rest of the group. It was frustrating.
Over the years, I have belonged to a number of groups run by volunteers; everything from school parent advisory groups to church groups. It’s nearly always the same small group of people who seem to volunteer to help and they are rarely the people who access the services provided.
It’s true. It isn’t just the animal kingdom that suffers the presence of “cowbirds”.
The lesson…
But maybe we would be better to consider that little junco, or any of the other birds who play foster-parent to a cowbird chick.
There are some birds that recognize that the big old cowbird egg doesn’t belong in their nest. The sweet yellow warbler knows, but it is too small to push the offender out of its nest so it merely builds a new nest overtop of the interloping egg and starts over.
Most though, don’t even notice that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. They just carry on incubating and raising the next generation of cowbirds. They probably wouldn’t waste their breath complaining about it; they’d just get busy and find another bug to fill that hungry beak with. The saying goes, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”
Maybe if we could ask them, if they could actually answer, they might say, “I never noticed Big Hank didn’t look like the others. I just knew he needed to be taken care of.” Just like there was always a lazy kid in our school groups, there always seem to be those with generous, serving hearts too.
The takeaway…
They are our foster-parents, adoptive parents, sport coaches, service club members, Sunday School teachers, volunteer fire fighters, classroom helpers, SPCA dog walkers, event organizers, and so on and so on.
Our lives and our communities are so much richer for the efforts of our friends and neighbours who work tirelessly to keep special events, clubs, and groups running. Where would we be without them?
If you’re one of those “juncos” who volunteers your time to make someone’s life better in any way…thank you! I’m sure you don’t hear that nearly often enough, but you are appreciated so very much!
And if you’re one of those less enthusiastic “cowbirds”…well maybe it’s time to pull up your socks and give back a little.
If you liked this reflection on birds, you might like this one too 🙂
