Your Letters

To the Editor,

Regarding your “Bird in Focus” in the Spring 2008 BirdScope, I understand the concern about cowbirds and their effect on bio-diversity and fragile species. I am also fascinated by the adaptation of these birds, particularly how the hatchlings repeat their parents’ behavior with no parental imprinting. I wonder if there are any signs of cowbirds adapting to their new, less nomadic, situation, and beginning to show nesting behavior. Do we know why cowbirds don’t learn behaviors from their host parents?

I think your article needed a bit more scientific detachment. There are winners and losers in nature. I am not against management activities, but I don’t think we need to demonize the cowbird in the process. We have so much to learn from this bird.

— Leslie Newman, Spring Lake, MI

Dear Leslie,

I agree that it’s unscientific to demonize cowbirds. I’d love to have been able to write a much longer piece about them, discussing their splendid mating displays and the fascinating role adult cowbirds play in the development of their young by interacting with them even as the foster parents are feeding them. But this article focused on what is currently known about how cowbirds locate nests and what happens when a nest is parasitized. So far, despite the surprisingly high amount of interest cowbirds take in their own young, we know of no evidence that they ever attempt to build their own nests.

— Laura Erickson

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu