Bronzed Cowbird

Bronzed Cowbird
In Tucson, Arizona, USA
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Icteridae
Genus:	Molothrus
Species:	M. aeneus
Binomial name
Molothrus aeneus (Wagler, 1829)

The Bronzed Cowbird (once known as the Red-eyed Cowbird), Molothrus aeneus, is a small icterid.

It breeds from the southern U.S. states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana south through Central America to Panama. An isolated population on the Caribbean coast of Colombia is sometimes treated as a separate species, the Bronze-brown Cowbird (M. armenti).

The male Bronzed Cowbird is 20 cm long and weighs 68 g, with green-bronze glossed black plumage and red eyes. The female is 18.5 cm long and weighs 56 g. She is duller black above and browner below. Young birds are like the female but have grey feather fringes.

Like all cowbirds, this bird is a brood parasite: it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. The young cowbird is fed by the host parents at the expense of their own young. Hosts include Prevost's Ground-Sparrow and Yellow-throated Brush Finch.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Molothrus aeneus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 05 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
• Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4

Further reading

• Lowther, P. E. 1995. Bronzed Cowbird (Molothrus aeneus). In The Birds of North America, No. 144 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C.

External links

• Bronzed Cowbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Bronzed Cowbird photo gallery VIREO