Having grown up
in MD my state list is pretty good at 329.
And with relatives still in MD, visits with the family can sometimes
provide opportunities to add to that list, though target birds pretty much have
to be rarities at this point. A few days
before a December trip to Baltimore I set up a Maryland Needs Alert in eBird. Several species popped up, though most were
too far away to try for given my small windows of available time. But then at the bottom of the list I noticed
numerous posts of a Shiny Cowbird being seen in Bethesda, MD, just north of DC.
Reports went back at least 3 weeks so
the bird appeared to be rather reliable.
And Bethesda wasn’t too far from the BWI Airport. So with a species as rare as this one (a
first record for MD), I made plans to make a quick stop to try for the Cowbird
before heading to the airport on my last day in MD.
Now I needed to
compile the micro-directions. The
Cowbird was being seen in a small suburban neighborhood, and many sightings
were of the bird perched high in a tree.
In most cases the Shiny Cowbird was associating with groups of
Brown-headed Cowbirds. And perhaps most
importantly, recent sightings mentioned that the target bird was re-growing all
of its tail feathers, so its tail was now much shorter than normal. Several specific locations were mentioned, though
access appeared to be limited. Several
posts mentioned seeing the bird from the driveway of the birder who first
spotted the bird at 9901 Parkwood. And
4804 Edgefield was mentioned several times.
Plus a feeder in the front yard of 9918 Parkwood was mentioned
once. So my plan was to at least bird
these 3 locations, keeping an eye out for Cowbirds in general. And needless to say my goal was to not get
arrested peering into suburban backyards with binoculars.
I arrived at
the neighborhood midday and instantly spotted 3 birders up ahead on
Parkwood. They mentioned that the bird
had been seen a few minutes earlier, but was not visible now. They also suggested that going over to
Edgefield was best at this point. A
minute later I parked on Edgefield and found another small group of birders in
front of 4804 Edgefield. They provided a
similar story – they had the bird earlier but not at the moment. As we all waited for the Shiny Cowbird to
reappear, I began to see lots of activity around this house. Several times small groups of Brown-headed
Cowbirds would fly in above the house, and then drop down in the backyard. There must be feeders in the back, but the
yard was not visible from the road. Now
I started to understand why many of the sightings were of the bird high in
trees – it must be flying in from elsewhere, perching momentarily above the
feeders when birders spot it, then dropping out of sight to feed.
We continued to
wait for at least 30 minutes, and had lots of activity but now Shiny Cowbird. I decided to walk over to Parkwood to see if
my luck was any better there, trading cellphone numbers with a birder remaining
at Edgefield in case the bird was spotted.
When I got to 9901 Parkwood I noticed a feeder in the back yard with a
few House Sparrows and 1 Brown-headed Cowbird, but little activity in
general. Then I walked to 9918 Parkwood
and found the feeders in the front yard but there were no birds at all. So I returned to 9901 Parkwood to wait a bit
longer there. A couple minutes later a
flock of about 10 Cowbirds flew in to a tree a short distance away – could the
Shiny be in this group? I scanned the
group but they all looked like Brown-headed’s.
One by one they dropped down out of view into a thick stand of bamboo
apparently near the backyard of 4804 Edgefield.
With just a couple birds left from that flock still perched in the tree
I noticed that one bird had a short tail – and it was all dark including its
head – I had the Shiny Cowbird! Just
then it too dropped down into the bamboo.
I called the birder back at Edgefield and told him I just had the bird,
and it likely just dropped into their general location. He responded by saying that they got access
to the backyard with all the feeders so they would be waiting for it.
I quickly ran
over to 4804 Edgefield and found out that one of the birders talked to the
homeowner, and she was fine with us sitting in her back yard to watch the
feeders. I joined 3 other birders behind
the house and found multiple feeding stations full of seed. Within a minute a flock of Cowbirds dropped
in and one was the Shiny Cowbird. The
flock was very skittish, but the target bird kept returning, and each time the
easiest way to pick it out among its Brown-headed cousins was to look for the
Shiny’s shorter tail.
One of the
birders I met there, Dave Brenneman, had a monster lens and he took numerous
shots of the bird. He shared this one
with me, providing great comparisons with a male Brown-headed, not only showing
the iridescent purple head of the Shiny Cowbird, but also its shorter tail.
A couple
minutes later I was back in my car and heading to the airport with plenty of
time to spare. On my way I reflected on
what turned out to be a very satisfying chase – finding the target bird after about
an hour’s search, and eventually getting great looks at an extreme rarity.
That was my
third sighting of Shiny Cowbird in the ABA area – I’ve also seen it in south FL
and in LA where it is reported with increasing frequency these days. All our local passerines need is yet another
species of parasitic Cowbird to contend with.
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