Article April 6, 1974 Issue

Are You a Wise Bird?

VIRGINIA D. SKARIE

A shiny black bird came to my window. Soon its mate appeared. Looking hurriedly in my bird book, I discovered they were cowbirds. They have an unusual habit. They do not build nests of their own but always lay their eggs in nests of other birds.

How like mortal belief, I thought. It has no abode of its own and so is always presenting its falsities in any consciousness that will receive them.

When a cowbird lays its eggs in the nest of some unsuspecting bird, it means the job of hatching and feeding the offspring from those eggs falls upon the owner of the nest. This other bird can spend an entire springtime nurturing and caring for offspring not its own.

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