Bird Behavior Question

It's an amazing thing about our universe. As fierce as it is, there are compassionate critters.

It's more likely your fledging finch was a baby brown-headed cowbird. Cowbirds are known to sneakily lay their eggs in other bird's nest where the unsuspecting owner of the nest hatches and adopts the foreign baby as their own. Cute, but what usually happens is the foreign cowbird is oftentimes larger than its adoptor's own baby birds and end up thriving at the expense of its smaller legitimate baby nestmates. -W

Oh yes, I stand corrected that sounds like a much more logical explanation.

Oh how interesting, Wings. I had known that the Mockingbird was guilty of this heinous act, but thanks for enlightening me to the sneaky Cowbird, good grief! I will need to look into the Cowbird appearance on Sibley because the tyke was pretty small and really looked like a Sparrow. Investigation mode begins...

Lisa, I do believe that there are compassionate critters out there. No corrections needed.

http://blog.duncraft.com/2010/01/17/what-we-learned-from-a-customers-question/

Thanks so much for the link, Wings! Yipes, you nailed it!

Now, all compassion is directed to the Dark-Eyed Junco, geez. How pathetic!

Nature is such a wonder...amazing.

Hey, I can't seem to get away from that word, "Cows". I paint cows, and now there is a Cowbird in my midst. (But please don't tell me that Cowbirds have udders, not that...)

Never heard of anything called a cowbird before. We call them cuckoos

Here is a cowbird Abbie.

Hah! Never heard of one...learn something new every day! Thank you

At first, I thought you might want to ask Darwin for this. This against Darwin's theory.
As wings said cowbird is an interesting bird, they lay their eggs in other bird's nest and fly away.
I agree that this baby might be a cowbird? not sparrow? Just spotted on the parking lot pole when we went bird watching last Saturday.

I've been spending days, from dawn 'til dark watching an active heron rookery with 4 species of herons in all stages of development. Besides photography, I'm here to scoop up fallen chicks so they can be rehabed and released. It happens all day, every day. Anyway, it's been very educational to watch their behavior and interactions between species. Some nests have tiny snowy egret chicks and a great white egret or cattle egret baby in the same nest, sometimes twice the size.
Snownies are particularly territorial and mean-tempered so it's hard to imagine another species laying in their nest, or allowing someone else's hatchling to live.

PBS had a nice documentary on them (STARTS AROUND 18:28) -W

Not surprised this over population of Cowbird caused by human.
I believe prothonotary warbler is endangered species in Canada.
It would be depressing if we have to face songbird extinction.

Thank you for everyone's contributions to this query!

Kathleen B.: I applaud you for your aid to the fallen Heron chicks! Another fascinating example of bird behavior.

Wings: Very much appreciate the link to the PBS documentary on the Cowbirds. A big WOW. I had never seen this, since I don't have time to watch T.V. Incredible!

Yes Abbie, we will continue to learn, thank heavens!

Apparently there is a lot more that goes on in nature than we ever imagined. "Nature" has "an intelligence" that we are only just beginning to appreciate (or dislike, depending on your perspective.)

Because of my lifelong interest, I have witnessed some amazing behaviors in nature, too numerous to list here. But the Cowbird? The PBS documentary? I am speechless!

Our world is changing, yes. So, fasten your seatbelts! It will prove to be an interesting ride, indeed.