Researchers are realizing that animal communication is more complicated than previously thought, and that the information animals share in their vocalizations can be complex. For example, some animals produce calls that warn ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 30, 2023
0
29
Brown-headed cowbirds are generalist brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of many other bird species and letting the host parents raise their young. A new study seeks to understand the strategies cowbird chicks ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 13, 2022
0
20
Brown-headed cowbirds show a bias in the sex ratio of their offspring depending on the time of the breeding season, researchers report in a new study. More female than male offspring hatch early in the breeding season in ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 24, 2020
1
88
Researchers at the University of Illinois have shown through a multi-year study that cowbirds (Molothrus ater) conform to Bateman's Principle, which holds that reproductive success is greater in males than in females when ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 30, 2019
0
22
Brown-headed cowbirds are unconventional mothers. Rather than building nests and nurturing their chicks, they lay their eggs in the nests of other species, leaving their young ones to compete for resources with the foster ...
Plants & Animals
May 23, 2017
0
4
If you are raised by other species, then how do you know who you are? Although heterospecific foster parents rear brood parasitic brown-headed cowbird chicks, juvenile cowbirds readily recognize and affiliate with other cowbirds. ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 18, 2017
0
190
Two juveniles of Shiny Cowbird, a parasitic bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, were spotted in the Andean city of Quito, Ecuador, for the first time. This finding represents an altitudinal expansion of approximately ...
Plants & Animals
May 4, 2016
0
3
A new study explores how a young cowbird, left as an egg in the nest of a different species, grows up to know it's a cowbird and not a warbler, thrush or sparrow.
Plants & Animals
Nov 2, 2015
0
39
Brown-headed cowbirds have a reputation for being deadbeat parents: They lay their eggs in other birds' nests and then disappear, the story goes, leaving the care and feeding of their offspring to an unwitting foster family. ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 9, 2015
0
168
Tired jokes about men, women and sense of direction have existed since the dawn of time. A new study at Western, however, has shown female brown-headed cowbirds perform spatial tasks better than their male counterparts – ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 28, 2014
0
12
