What We Have Here...

...is what appears to be a red-eyed vireo feeding its fledgling brown-headed cowbird. Brown-headed cowbirds are obligate brood parasites. They always lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Intriguingly, the young cowbirds grow up knowing they are cowbirds, sing cowbird songs and lay their own eggs in other birds' nests. Anyway - I wonder if the vireo has other young - proper red-eyed vireo young - hopping around somewhere begging for food?

Red-eyed vireos are birds that I know are nesting in the woods around our house, because I hear them constantly. They sing all. day. long. They are nicknamed "the preacher bird" because they go on and on. HA! So it was actually rather fun to get a shot of this one! But I feel rather badly that it got stuck raising this big lump of a cowbird. The Wikipedia article actually says:
"The red-eyed vireo suffers from nest parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) in the north of its range..."


Extra is a ruby-throated hummingbird enjoying the crocosmia.