When the female cowbird lays her egg in the nest, she also removes one or two warbler eggs from the nest. Generally, she takes out more eggs than she puts in the nest. When throwing away eggs, she ...

Because cowbird eggs require a shorter incubation period, and female cowbirds can lay more eggs than most wild birds, their chances of survival in host nests surpass those of the host’s own young.

Many species of birds get reputations of various sorts. One species that gets a bad rap, through no fault of its own, is the brown-headed cowbird. The female cowbird lays its eggs in the nests of ...

Many species of birds get reputations of various sorts. One species that gets a bad rap, through no fault of its own, is the brown-headed cowbird. The female cowbird lays ...

The female cowbird lays its eggs in the nests of other species and then leaves forever. It’s up to the host species to incubate the eggs, ...

Female brown-headed cowbird. Source: Rhododendrites, via Wikimedia Commons. Additionally, Barros and Benedict were surprised to find that less than 10% of studies attempted to link female song to ...