Cowbird
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Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus Molothrus in the family Icteridae. They are of New World origin and are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.
The genus was introduced by English naturalist William Swainson in 1832 with the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) as the type species.[2][3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek Script error: No such module "lang"., meaning "struggle" or "battle", with Script error: No such module "lang"., meaning "to sire" or "to impregnate".[4] The English name "cowbird", first recorded in 1839, refers to this species often being seen near cattle.[5]
Species
The genus contains six species:[6] Template:Species table
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One extinct species, Molothrus resinosus, is known from fossil remains recovered from the Talara Tar Seeps of northwestern Peru, and likely went extinct during the late Quaternary. It may have been a close associate of Pleistocene megafauna communities, and may have gone extinct following their collapse in populations.[7] The convex-billed cowbird (Pandanaris convexa) is another extinct species that likely co-evolved with the megafauna, though it is placed in its own genus.
The nonparasitic baywings were formerly placed in this genus; they are now classified as Agelaioides.
Behavior
Cowbirds eat mostly insects and seeds. Some species follow ungulates to catch insects stirred up by the larger animals' grazing.
Cowbirds reproduce by laying their eggs in other birds' nests. Female cowbirds observe a potential host bird laying its eggs, and when the nest is left momentarily unattended, the cowbird lays its own egg in it. The female cowbird may continue to observe this nest after laying eggs. Some bird species have evolved the ability to detect such parasitic eggs, and may reject them by pushing them out of their nests, but female cowbirds have been observed to attack and destroy the remaining eggs of such birds in retaliation, as suggested by the Mafia hypothesis.[8]
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Icteridae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Swainson, William; Richardson, J. (1831). Fauna boreali-americana, or, The zoology of the northern parts of British America. Vol. Part 2. The Birds. London: J. Murray. p. 277. The title page bears the year 1831 but the volume did not appear until 1832.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 195.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Script error: No such module "template wrapper". (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P. (July 2020). "IOC World Bird List (v 10.2)". Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Steadman, David W.; Oswald, Jessica A. (July 2020). "New species of troupial (Icterus) and cowbird (Molothrus) from ice-age Peru". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 132 (1): 91–103. doi:10.1676/1559-4491-132.1.91. S2CID 220714575.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jeffrey P. Hoover; Scott K. Robinson (13 March 2007). "Retaliatory mafia behavior by a parasitic cowbird favors host acceptance of parasitic eggs". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (11): 4479–4483. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104.4479H. doi:10.1073/pnas.0609710104. PMC 1838626. PMID 17360549.
Further reading
- Jaramillo and Burke, New World Blackbirds Template:ISBN
External links
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