Brown-Headed Cowbird

Day 254: Brown-Headed Cowbirds are a common sight in the Pacific Northwest during the summer months. The females are of a medium brown color with barely visible streaks on the breast. Young birds will appear speckled, but it is the male's distinctive head which gives the species its common name. In some lights, the color is difficult to distinguish, but these birds are easy to identify due to a frequently observed and somewhat comical "staring at the sky" posture, beak pointed almost straight up and neck extended.

Molothrus ater is a clever mimic and copies not only the calls of other birds but of other animals as well. I have heard them voice the whinny of a horse, an odd sound indeed to be coming from thirty feet up a Douglas fir tree!