How to get ride of cowbirds

[clickie]

Does any one know what to do about cowbirds? It seems that every nest of birds near my house has cowbirds in them. The poor birds are being chased by the cowbirds, and I keep finding eggs on the ground. I even saw a pair of pigeons taking care of cowbirds. I would rather have pigeons than cowbirds lol. anyway I was wondering if there was anything that could be down to discourage (sp?) the cowbirds from coming near my yard, without killing them. I'm wondering where all the neighborhood cats are, they keep killing all of the good birds but leave the cowbirds alone. Thank you. They are brown headed cowbirds if that helps.

 

[Mahonri]

Cow birds are just sneaky.

Lay their eggs in others nests!... let other mammas do the work!

 

[sundance]

I know this sounds like an awfully dumb question, but what are cowbirds? marrie

 

[clickie]

I know this sounds like an awfully dumb question, but what are cowbirds? marrie

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/brown-headed_cowbird/id

Its not a dumb question, I didn't know what they were for a little while too.

This site shows a picture of them, and gives some information on them. Overall they are birds that lay eggs in other birds nests. sometimes they kill other nestlings or drop the other eggs out.​

 

[cmjust0]

Brown-headed cowbird.

Like hawks and seemingly everything else with feathers, they're protected by the MBTA..

 

[sundance]

I guess we're lucky, havent seen anything like that around here. we do have some finches(i think) that nest every year on top of one of our gutters, but they don;t look anything like these, and they hatch out about 3 babies every year. thanks learned something new marrie

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
I've also read that they monitor the nests where they've deposited their eggs, making sure their eggs haven't been discarded by the hosts.. If their eggs are discarded, they destroy the nest and prevent the host birds from rebuilding.

In other words...you're gonna raise my babies or I won't allow you to raise any babies. They're like the mafia of the avian world.

Check this out..

 

[clickie]

Like hawks and seemingly everything else with feathers, they're protected by the MBTA..

I did not know that they were protected. I don't want to kill them, I just want them to leave. I think there are over 2 dozen now. I just feel bad for the other birds, because they have worked so hard to build their nest only to raise more cowbirds. oh well.​

 

[cmjust0]

Since cowbirds -- ruthless parasites that they are -- are totally dependent upon other birds, seems to me you'd pretty much have to get rid of all the birds to get rid of the cowbirds.

 

[horsejody]

Cowbirds must be the animal kingdom's version of those jughead people that keep having kids that end up in foster care. If the word gets out, there will be a new government program and somebody will start sending them welfare checks.