This
Month in Yellowstone
Brown-headed Cowbirds on a Bison's Back
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NPS Photo by Erik Hendrickson
The male brown-headed cowbird has its beak pointed straight
up in a courtship display. These birds got their name because they were
observed regularly eating insects on the backs of cows. In Yellowstone
they subsitute bison
for cows sometimes. They are parasitic nesters and after mating, the female
will find the nest of other, often smaller, birds in which to lay her
eggs. When the eggs hatch the cowbird young are bigger than the other
youngsters in the nest and therefore demand a lions share of the food
being brought in adults who built the nest. This photo was taken in Gibbon
Meadow on May 15, 2005.
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