Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
Speaker 1: Chuck and Jerry's here too. And this is a short stuff,
Speaker 1: which is why I realize now that I started this
Speaker 1: off incorrectly. Short stuff.
Speaker 2: Let's go, that's right, big Thanks to Britannica Yellowstone Wild Tours,
Speaker 2: California Department of Fish Wildlife, New Hampshire, Autobond and Autobond
Speaker 2: for information about the ground headed brown ground brown headed cowbird.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you me too, she brought this bird to
Speaker 1: my attention.
Speaker 3: Oh I forgot you me dot org.
Speaker 1: So, Chuck, we're talking today about cowbirds, and really in
Speaker 1: particular the brown headed cowbird. You ever heard of them before?
Speaker 3: Had never heard of them?
Speaker 1: I hadn't neither. But if you want to know about
Speaker 1: a brown headed cowbird, the first thing you need to
Speaker 1: know about it is that it's a brood parasite. What
Speaker 1: does that mean, Chuck? What does that mean?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I had never heard of this trait and a bird either.
Speaker 2: So a brood parasite is a bird that will be
Speaker 2: like you know what, I don't want to build my
Speaker 2: own nest and go through all that whole process of
Speaker 2: raising these babies that I egg out of my body.
Speaker 2: So I'm just going to go lay those eggs in
Speaker 2: some other bird's nest and then go away in shirk parenthood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do it for me? How about that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what they do. And it you know, you're like,
Speaker 1: why would you do that? You have to be a
Speaker 1: jerk bird? And yeah, I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: think of cowbirds as kind of jerk birds just for
Speaker 1: doing that. But from their point of view, like this
Speaker 1: is this is just an adaptation that made a lot
Speaker 1: of sense to how they evolved originally. And they're from
Speaker 1: North America and they were I think indigenous to the
Speaker 1: Great Plains of North America. And the reason why is
Speaker 1: because there's another animal that was indigenous to the Great
Speaker 1: Plains of North America and they had a commensal.
Speaker 3: Commensal Is it commensal?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think so. I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a you in there anyway. Okay, they had the
Speaker 1: kind of relationship where they benefited but didn't harm the
Speaker 1: other animal. And I feel like it's high time we
Speaker 1: tell everybody what the other animal was.
Speaker 2: Chuck, that's right, drum roll everybody, It is the bison.
Speaker 2: They would follow these bison across the planes. Sometimes they
Speaker 2: were initially they were called bison birds or maybe buffalo birds,
Speaker 2: even though that's wrong. And they would follow these guys
Speaker 2: across the planes and they would feed on the insects
Speaker 2: that the bison would kick up, and they would sometimes
Speaker 2: ride along on their backs. And this is this led
Speaker 2: to why they would not birth their own little eggs
Speaker 2: in their own little nests and raise them, because they
Speaker 2: went where the bison went, and they were always on
Speaker 2: the move and bison can travel buddy. So if they're
Speaker 2: moving ten twenty miles a day and they're catching a
Speaker 2: ride on the bison's backer at the very least flying
Speaker 2: around with the bison, they're not staying there long enough
Speaker 2: to set up their own home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cowbird was rolling stone, that's.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, bison bird at the time, I guess.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, that's right. So yeah, it totally made sense that,
Speaker 1: like they still need to reproduce, so they would just
Speaker 1: find a nest somewhere along the bison route and leave
Speaker 1: their egg and then fly back to the bison and
Speaker 1: be like wait, wait, wait for me, everybody. And I
Speaker 1: feel like that's a pretty good place to take our break.
Speaker 3: What do you think I totally agree.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, we're taking our break, everybody, so chuck Sadly,
Speaker 1: as probably most people know, the American bison was overhunted
Speaker 1: almost to extinction. We can seriously legitimately thank Ted Turner
Speaker 1: for almost single handedly bringing the American bison back.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: And so while in between that period between over hunting
Speaker 1: and Ted Turner, the bison bird was like, I don't
Speaker 1: have my niche anymore. I need to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on here. I got to start looking elsewhere. And
Speaker 1: they basically spread outside of their ecological niche in the
Speaker 1: great planes to look for other things they could do
Speaker 1: to replace their bison friends, which they must have just
Speaker 1: been horrified by all the massacres they witnessed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet probably very sad times for the bison bird.
Speaker 2: But eventually one of them would land on a cow
Speaker 2: and say, hey, these guys aren't so bad to ride
Speaker 2: around on. But here's the thing is, cows don't move
Speaker 2: around like the bison didn't. They're not traveling, you know,
Speaker 2: twenty miles a day. So you might think, all right,
Speaker 2: they're leading a more sedentary life. These birds are now cowbirds,
Speaker 2: and so maybe they will change their behavior. Now that
Speaker 2: they're not they don't need to do this, but they didn't.
Speaker 2: They said, we love these cows, but we also kind
Speaker 2: of like this adaptation because you know, who really wants
Speaker 2: to parent they're young.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, exactly. We're not gonna we're not gonna change anything.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna stop, you know, wasting so much effort
Speaker 1: flying around all the time. I think there's I don't remember. Oh,
Speaker 1: there's five species of cowbirds, at least the parasitic versions
Speaker 1: and the brown headed cowbird. The reason we're talking about
Speaker 1: the brown head is because it is by far the
Speaker 1: least picky about what nest it lays its eggs in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so these are you know, they're not large eggs. They're
Speaker 1: much smaller than like a chicken's egg, but they're probably
Speaker 1: not as tiny as like say a robin's egg. They're
Speaker 1: middling sized eggs. Brown headed cowbirds will lay their eggs
Speaker 1: in like a duck's nest. Yes, this little egg is
Speaker 1: like five times smaller than the other eggs around it. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the ducks are like, what is this crud? And there
Speaker 1: are other bird species too that are kind of onto them.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times the birds will just you know,
Speaker 1: play along or else just be fooled.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the finch is notorious for not liking
Speaker 2: these eggs in their nest. They're not good host of
Speaker 2: these these intruding eggs. So apparently they will uh you know,
Speaker 2: they will, they will die if they are left in
Speaker 2: charge of a finch. Other birds will will get mad
Speaker 2: and puncture holes in the eggs or just you know,
Speaker 2: beak them out of their nests. I think the catbirds
Speaker 2: do that. And then the yellow warbler has a strategy
Speaker 2: where they build nest. They'll just nest a new nest
Speaker 2: on top of those poor little eggs, sometimes several new nests,
Speaker 2: like up to five new nests on top to really
Speaker 2: bury those guys.
Speaker 1: I know, there's some like Tom and Jerry like like
Speaker 1: scene that is making that makes me think of yeah,
Speaker 1: but like it happens like really really fast.
Speaker 3: Right right.
Speaker 1: So, if however, the cowbird happens to lay their egg
Speaker 1: in a nest that the bird is like just too
Speaker 1: lazy to do anything about, that cowbird is probably going
Speaker 1: to be the only hatchling that survives because it has
Speaker 1: adaptations to outcompete other birds in the nests that it's
Speaker 1: laid in.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of them is they have a shorter incubation period,
Speaker 2: so they're born first, I think sometimes up to three
Speaker 2: or four days before the other eggs might hatch, and
Speaker 2: so they got a little bit of a head start
Speaker 2: where they might take care of those extra eggs themselves.
Speaker 2: These baby birds might nudge those things out. So earlier
Speaker 2: you were saying there are some bird enthusiasts that kind
Speaker 2: of think these are jerk birds, and in my mind
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, but you know, like these birds
Speaker 2: are doing their thing, like you can't get mad at
Speaker 2: nature for being nature. But then you get to this
Speaker 2: part and you're kind of like, ah, man, that really
Speaker 2: kinda sucks.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So even if they're like, I'll let you
Speaker 1: guys stay, and the cowbird doesn't push the other hatchlings out,
Speaker 1: just from being a couple days older, they'll be able
Speaker 1: to muscle the other birds out of the way to
Speaker 1: get the food, and they'll just continue to outpace them
Speaker 1: and their growth, and it might be so bad that
Speaker 1: the other hatchlings starved because the cowbird doesn't let them
Speaker 1: get any of the food from the mother.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I get it now, bird enthusiasts, I have
Speaker 2: a question for you, though, Joshua, which is, with all
Speaker 2: this going on, not being raised by their parents, how
Speaker 2: in the world does the cowbird not start to take
Speaker 2: on traits of the bird that raise them.
Speaker 3: How do they remain cowbirds?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked that we don't really know, Chuck.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, there seems to be some
Speaker 1: sort of mechanism that prevents cowbirds from imprinting onto their
Speaker 1: adopted or foster parent from the other specie. They're not
Speaker 1: exactly sure how this happens, but they think that cowbirds
Speaker 1: hatchlings are attuned to the sound of adult cowbirds in
Speaker 1: the area, and that they're naturally attracted to it. Once
Speaker 1: they learn to fly, they'll go seek out other cowbirds,
Speaker 1: and I guess there they learn all of the cowbird habits,
Speaker 1: like playing craps and smoking cigarettes and all that stuff. Yea.
Speaker 1: And then also there's they do some weird nighttime excursions
Speaker 1: out of the nest while they're being raised, and I
Speaker 1: guess no one knows where they go, but that's something
Speaker 1: that they're like that probably has something to go learn
Speaker 1: actual cowbird behavior too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder if when they are attuned to the
Speaker 2: sound of their own if they eventually fly out when
Speaker 2: they're big enough to find them, if they're like mama,
Speaker 2: and the birds are like, don't look at me, but.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, even if it was their mom, they wouldn't
Speaker 1: take credit because it's a brown headed cowbird.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: So if you want to find one of these, you
Speaker 1: might see them in your feet or they are adapted
Speaker 1: to all over North America, rural, suburban, urban, you can
Speaker 1: f find them everywhere. They're a smallish, a medium size,
Speaker 1: smallish bird, whatever that means. But the males have a
Speaker 1: brown head that shines and shimmers almost like a deep
Speaker 1: red in the sunlight, and they also have iridescent greenish
Speaker 1: blue plumage on their body. The females, you're not going
Speaker 1: to really notice that much. They're much less showy, but
Speaker 1: that's pretty standard for birds anyway.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: I think short stuff is about out, but since we
Speaker 2: have an extra thirty seconds, I'm going to take this
Speaker 2: opportunity to promote the new Nature series from the BBC,
Speaker 2: the latest in their ongoing work with the Great David Attenborough.
Speaker 3: Sir David Attenborough Asia.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, and it.
Speaker 2: Is fantastic stuff as always, exactly what you would expect
Speaker 2: out of the BBC Nature Series. And Sir Attenborough is
Speaker 2: ninety nine years old, he's going to be one hundred
Speaker 2: and May and he's still doing it and it's just
Speaker 2: some really amazing, striking stuff.
Speaker 1: Did they spell it like Steely Dan?
Speaker 3: Spell what like Steely Dan?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: No, no, no no, they spelled it Asia.
Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha?
Speaker 3: Not a ja.
Speaker 1: Well there you go. You're welcome. BBC. Chuck just hooked
Speaker 1: you guys up with some viewers. I'm going to go
Speaker 1: check that out myself.
Speaker 3: It's great, you guys would love it.
Speaker 1: Cool. Well then, I think now, Chuck short Stuff is out.
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