The Plight of the Songbirds

     For those who are early risers, it is a pleasant symphony of morning to hear the songs of the birds that live around our homes.  They are particularly obvious if you live near wooded areas since that's where songbirds most often prefer to be.  But you may have noticed over the years that that symphony seems to be getting quieter.  In the past few decades, birdwatchers and scientists have noticed fewer songbirds with each passing year.

     There are several contributing factors to why you've noticed fewer songbirds in the woods than there used to be.  One reason for the decline is that large areas of forest in the birds' summer and winter homes have been cleared for agriculture or the countless housing developments that are popping up all over.  But here in the United States, there's another reason for songbirds' decline.  It's another bird species-called the Brown-headed Cowbird.

      Before European settlers arrived here, things were very different.  Vast herds of buffalo roamed over the country and there was far, far more wooded land.  Cowbirds followed these herds of buffalo across the Great Plains.  In addition to liking grain which the buffalo liked, the cowbirds would sit on the buffalo and munch on bugs.  It did the buffalo a favor and provided some `free' transportation for the cowbirds! The buffalo were nomadic and so the cowbirds adapted to being nomadic.  Because of these wandering ways, these birds adopted an unusual reproductive strategy.  They laid their eggs in the nests of other birds, which then often raised the cowbird chicks.

 
   Cowbirds are open country birds.  They never venture deep into the woods, so for some time, the songbirds were safe.  It was the settlers who changed the habits of the cowbirds.  Settlers began clearing the land at an unprecedented rate as well as destroying the buffalo in an attempt to wipe out the Native Americans.  When the settlers changed the environment of the cowbird, the cowbird had to change and adapt.  As wooded areas got smaller and the buffulo heards diminished, the cowbirds' range quickly expanded from the Great Plains to all over North America, including Chester County.  Today, cowbirds have access to the nests of many local songbirds.

     Cowbirds are not small birds; they are about as large as a blackbird and their chicks are much larger than the chicks of the host bird.  Their size, combined with their persistent begging usually gets them more food than chicks of the host birds.  Robins and blue jays have learned to recognize and destroy cowbird eggs.  But other songbirds, such as warblers and sparrows which have become the cowbirds favorite victims, end up competing with demanding cowbird chicks.  As a result, many songbird chicks die of starvation.

     Today cowbirds typically still prefer the open areas, but are gradually adapting to more residential areas.  They can usually be found feeding with blackbirds and grackles.  They look quite similar except for their brown head.  One thing they do not like to do is go into birdhouses to lay their eggs.  So birdhouses have become safe havens for some songbirds.

     We should not be angry at the cowbird and blame him for the decrease in songbirds.  We must hold ourselves accountable for changing our environment without heed to the consequences.  More and more environmental groups are trying to make people aware of the fact that we must live with the Earth, we cannot just change it to suit our own needs.