I have never seen one of these birds until today and I saw quite a few of them.
The Brown Headed Cowbird is often seen in large flocks some have been observed in the millions. There were so many on my bird feeder that the weight of them broke the base from the bottom.
They are nest parasites or brood parasites. They will lay their eggs in other bird’s nests and leave. The Brown Headed Cowbird will often hatch first and out compete the other hatchlings. The males an females look totally different.
Male Brown Headed Cowbird
Female Brown Headed Cowbird
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Florida’s State bird is often heard more than seen.
The Northern Mockingbird is The Florida State Bird. They are very very good singers and really live up to their scientific name polyglottos which means many voices. They often perch at the highest point in a tree and sing away with a quite an amazing song. They will imitate other birds, mammals, machines and musical instruments.
The will hunt insects and eat berries. I have seen them standing in the grass lifting their wings and then slamming them down just to scare a bug out into the open. One time I watched one fly down onto the road several times and each time eating something quite small. I had to investigate and see what the Mockingbird was eating. He kept landing several feet from our garbage cans which were on the curb waiting to be picked up. Earlier that night a raccoon or opossum had been in the garbage cans and removed the lids and tore open the garbage bags making a nice mess. This mockingbird was eating the fly larva that were escaping the recently torn bags. Yeah I know it sounds gross that this mockingbird was eating maggots but he didn’t seem to mind not one bit.
They are very brave birds, especially for their size. I have seen them countless times chasing larger birds such as hawks and crows and dive bombing them in mid air. They do this because these larger birds will raid the Mockingbirds nests and steal the eggs or the young hatchlings. I have aslo seen them dive bomb a cat and land on the cat’s rear scaring the cat away and making the cat become quite an acrobat.
They are very common and have adapted well to city life.
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