Bronzed Cowbird - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Gaga
San Ygnacio, Texas, USA, May 2004

Molothrus aeneus

Includes: Bronze-brown Cowbird

Identification

18.5-20cm

• Iridescent greeny bronze, black plumage
• Red iris
  

Female dull grey brown

Distribution

Female (Western)
Photo by bobsofpa
Cottonwood Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, April 2010

Southwestern California, southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern Texas south to northern Colombia.

Rare to casual vagrant along the rest of the gulf coast. Accidental vagrant to Utah, Colorado, Missouri, and Nova Scotia.

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

This is a polytypic species, consisting of four subspecies:

• M. a. loyei:

• South-western US to north-western Mexico (Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango and Nayarit)

• M. a. assimilis:

• South-western Mexico (Jalisco to Colima, Guerrero, Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas)

• M. a. aeneus:

• Southern Texas to southern Mexico, Yucatán Peninsula and central Panama

• M. a. armenti:

• Caribbean coast of northern Colombia - sometimes split as Bronze-brown Cowbird

Habitat

Open fields, scrubland, and forest.

Behaviour

Breeding

It is a brood parasite, laying its blue green eggs in the nests of other birds.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Bronzed Cowbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Bronzed_Cowbird

External Links

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