July 24, 2009
Mnemonic description of song:
glug-glug-gle
bublowcomseeee
bub-ko-lum-tseeee
What is known about brown-headed cowbird song?
Repertoire
Average about 4 song types (Duffy 1985)
Wing waving/ bow display with song
Neighbors
Countersing (Lowther 2020)
Females:
Females duet with chatter (Lowther 2020)
How and when is song acquired?
Cowbirds are brood parasites, raised by other species
Modify songs in response to female preference (Catchpole and Slater, 2008)
Song development likely in winter flocks involving social and vocal interactions (King and West 1988)
Isolated birds develop normal song (West et al. 1981)
How can we facilitate song learning?
Exposure to song when young doesn’t seem to be necessary for normal song development
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Resources:
Dufty, Jr., A. M. (1985). Song sharing in the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 69:177-190.
King, A. P. and M. J. West. (1988). Searching for the functional origins of song in eastern Brown-headed Cowbirds, Molothrus ater ater. Animal Behaviour 36:1575-1588.
Lowther, P. E. (2020). Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bnhcow.01
West, M. J., A. P. King and D. H. Eastzer. (1981). Validating the female bioassay of cowbird song: relating differences in song potency to mating success. Animal Behaviour 29:490-501.