Brown-headed Cowbirds

Here were a couple of Brown-headed Cowbirds (perhaps our favorite brood parasites [1]) from last summer. Note that these are pictures of a male (top) and a female (bottom). While the males have a strikingly brown head on a basically black body, the females are more of a uniform beige; if the species had been named after the females, they'd probably be called something like the Beige-bodied Cowbirds.

While writing this blog, MS Copilot - the AI associated with their Bing search engine - told me that they collect milk for cows to feed their young. This sounded stupid since, as brood parasites, cowbirds don't even raise their young, leaving that job to unwitting "foster parents". Searching a little more, I found articles that told me that birds never drink milk in the wild and are actually lactose intolerant, yet another reason to doubt the cowbird/milk claim. Finally I found what was intended to be a light-hearted joke in this article that claims cowbirds collect milk but then immediately says they were joking. My guess is that this article or 1 very much like it fooled the AI into thinking cowbirds feed milk to their young. But in reality cowbirds to not feed milk to their offspring [2] [3].

June 24, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 301212208, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

June 24, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 301212241, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] Birds that leave their eggs in other birds' nests to the detriment of the original eggs tend to make brood parasites somewhat unpopular with many people, so being the "favorite" is faint praise.

[2] Don't believe every AI you meet.

[3] When I explained this to the AI, the AI apologized for the mistake.

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