Earlier today, while I was sitting on the porch of the shady rest office, I noticed a little bird rolling around on the other end of the porch, looking very helpless and lost indeed. I walked over to check it out, and next to the bird was a splatter of yolk and albumin and some broken shell.
the chick in question.
splat!
I consulted with charlotte, and we thought maybe it was a baby cowbird, because of the broken egg with it on the ground. cowbirds are nest parasites; the parents lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and the eggs hatch earlier that the resident’s eggs. when the cowbird egg hatches, the chick pushes the rest of the eggs in the nest out to get rid of the competition, and the nest parents raise and feed the cowbird. perhaps this little chick fell out of the nest while it was pushing the egg out? i had a strong suspicion that the nest it was in was a house sparrow nest, because there is a pair of house sparrows that hangs out in the area where we found the chick. house sparrows are an invasive species that comes from europe, and in rural/agricultural areas they outcompete native birds for cavities to nest in. we looked around a little and found the nest. we then had to decide: should we put it back? i thought we should put it back regardless of what species it was, but charlotte thought that if it was a house sparrow chick we should just leave it in some grass to get eaten by a cat, because house sparrows are invasive. in any case, she thought it was a cowbird, so we put it back. this chick will presumably keep pushing the sparrow eggs out, so i guess in the end we chose parasite over invasive.
me sticking the chick back in the nest.
chick back in the nest.
I later googled image searched house sparrow and cowbird chicks, and I think it was probably a house sparrow chick because it had big yellow gape protuberances. oh well.