Cardinal and cowbird

Looking closer at this photo and thinking that does not look like a fledgling cardinal. Google to the rescue...this is a cowbird fledgling (crap!). Cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds nests, often to the detriment of other birds as they often remove an egg first before adding theirs & the cowbird fledgling tends to get more of the food as it is often bigger and earlier than the other nestlings. Learn something every day but admit I’m a little depressed...:(

[Milanie]

Terrific shot - looks great on black.

[Rick]

Awesome capture. Surprised that the cardinal would be feeding another breed of bird like that.

[Diana]

A wonderful shot but not such a wonderful story. They seem to be real cheaters ;-(

[Pigeons Farm]

Looks wonderful on black. Great shot

[Peter Dulis]

nice capture ...

[haskar]

Great timing.

[Margaret Brown]

fantastic, you learn something every day!! Fav

[JackieR]

We call them cukoos here. Poor parents have no idea!!

[Kerri Michaels]

amazing capture fav

[tony gig]

Fab timing and shot...Fav

[Lisa Pouncy]

Sound just like our cuckoos. Very deceitful birds and end up growing twice the size of the host parents and also knock the other fledgies out of the nest. Big bullies xx