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Uploaded by: joemorlan

In album: Trinidad and Tobago - Jan 2007

In Webshots channel: outdoors
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Date uploaded: Feb 5, 2007

07 January 2007 - Asa Wright Nature Center, Trinidad http://www.asawright.org/ Like the well-known Brown-Headed Cowbird of North America, this species is an obligate brood parasite. The females lay their eggs in the nests of other species which raise the cowbird babies as if they were their own. The cowbird has a short incubation period and is usually cared for preferentially by the host parents who ignore their later-hatched real babies which usually do not survive. We found this species on both Trinidad and Tobago, presumably the first islands to be colonized by this species when it invaded the Caribbean. This is an adult male. The females are drab brown and look very similar to females of the Brown-headed Cowbird. The vertical smudges in this photo are rain drops. Olympus D-550z / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30XWA (hand-held - no adapter).