Birds of Central Oklahoma

All birds Troupials and Allies

Brown-headed Cowbird, adult male
Adult male Photo by Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Brown-headed Cowbird

Molothrus ater

Here March to July.

Recorded by Ross Gallardy. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, via xeno-canto, trimmed and volume evened out.

Look for

  1. Males are glossy black with a brown head. In good light, the black has a green-blue shine.
  2. Females are plain, dusty brown, with a pale throat and faint streaks on the chest.
  3. A short, thick bill shaped like a cone, dark eyes, and a short, square tail.

A little about it

You can find a few cowbirds here in any month, but they're much easier to see in spring and early summer. That's when males puff up their feathers and bow low while they sing a squeaky, gurgly song.

Long ago, cowbirds probably followed big herds of bison across the Great Plains. They ate the bugs the bison stirred up from the grass. Today they follow cows and horses. They walk on the ground to find seeds and bugs, like grasshoppers and beetles. At feeders, they eat cracked corn, millet, and sunflower seeds.

Cowbirds don't build nests. A mother cowbird lays her eggs in the nests of other kinds of birds. Those birds keep the eggs warm and feed the baby cowbirds. She may lay up to 40 eggs in one year, in lots of different nests. The babies grow fast and leave the nest when they're about 10 or 11 days old.

Why do they do this? Back when cowbirds followed the bison, they were always on the move. A mother couldn't stay in one place to care for a nest.

Fun fact

Scientists have found cowbird eggs in the nests of more than 220 kinds of birds.

When it's here

Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in June.

How big

SparrowRobinCrowGoose

6 to 9 inches. A little bigger than a House Sparrow.

Where to look

Pastures and roadsides with fences. Look on the ground near cows or horses. They come to yards and feeders too.

  • Fields and roadsides
  • Yards and parks
  • At feeders

People have spotted it at Martin Park Nature Center, Lake Thunderbird State Park, Mitch Park.

Could it be something else?

  • Common Grackle

    Its long tail is shaped like the rudder on a boat. A cowbird has a short, square tail.

  • Brewer's Blackbird

    It has yellow eyes and a longer bill. A cowbird's eyes are dark, and its bill is short and thick like a sparrow's.

More photos

Brown-headed Cowbird, female
Female Photo by Paul Danese. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Where these facts come from