### animal | vertebrate | bird:

Blackbird
* All blackbirds also have fairly long legs and strong feet.
* Most blackbirds eat seeds
  - feed on fruit
* Most blackbirds have diets
  - growth
  - regions
  - white wings
* Some blackbirds are drab, while others are brightly colored
  - feed on larvae
* Some blackbirds have migratory tendencies
  - noticeable streaks
  - strong tendencies
* Some blackbirds prefer areas
  - swampy areas
* are birds
  - common avian pests that cause major economic damage and occasionally spread disease
  - easy to find in gardens all over Europe and in Asia , South of the Arctic Circle
  - given federal protection in the United States
  - prey for domestic cats, foxes and predatory birds
  - thrushs
* break up the quiet by cawing while soaring overhead.
* can be a bit of a nuisance as they pull the mulch about
  - count up to five
* eat mainly insects in summer and seeds in winter
  - nearby sunflower in the fall
  - plants and animals, including fruit, seeds, insects and small molluscs
* forage for insects.
  - many noticeable adaptations
* includes air sacs
  - bird's feet
  - brains
  - breasts
  - cell membranes
  - cells
  - chest cavities
  - chests
  - corpi
  - cytoplasm
  - ears
  - faces
  - flight feathers
  - lips
  - mouths
  - nuclei
  - plasma membranes
  - quill feathers
  - rib cages
  - second joints
  - sections
  - skulls
  - sterna
  - talons
  - vacuoles
  - wishbones
* is an oriole
* live in gardens, thickets, hedges and broad-leaved and coniferous forests.
* nest either in wetlands or in grasslands.
* often forage in the open, but as they are timid, cover is usually close by.
* prefer fairly dense cattail stands, which many birds find unusable.
* pull sprouting corn and other seeds.
* run on the ground and hop quickly, with brief pauses.
* sing sharply in the wet trees.
* sometimes cause serious depredation to sunflowers and certain other crops.
* use cattail for perches.
+ Blackbird, Appearance: Thrushes
  * Juveniles and females are brown, and less easy to see. Blackbirds are easy to find in gardens all over Europe and in Asia, South of the Arctic Circle. On average, Blackbirds live to be 2.4 years old, but some have been found to be 20 years old.

### animal | vertebrate | bird | blackbird:

Cowbird
* Meet the bird that needs no human introductions.
* also cause problems
  - eat insects, particularly grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars
  - have heavily parasitized nests of the red-eyed vireo and parula warbler
  - feeder visitors, but more so in snowstorms
  - natives of the North American plains
  - only one source of nesting mortality
  - six to eight inches long, with short, conical bills and short tails
* are smaller and have a shorter bill than other blackbirds
  - with more conical bills
  - the only obligate brood parasites in North America
* are, to a certain extent, dependent upon food provided by humans and livestock operations.
* chicks hatch a day before any warbler eggs, and are much larger than warbler chicks.
* don t build nests.
* eat insects associated with cattle.
* enjoy sitting on bison heads.
* feed in open areas on the grain and waste of farms
  - primarily on weed seeds and insects, often in association with grazing livestock
* fly directly, with constant wingbeats.
* follow cattle and lay their eggs in the nest of nearby songbirds
  - the bison, catching the grasshoppers that jump from the bisons' hooves
* have two types of songs, perched songs and whistles.
* migrate in large flocks in spring and fall.
* occasionally parasitize nests in nestboxes.
* prefer to hang out in open fields and parasitize many nests along forest edges.
* quickly move into any area where people cut trees or plant crops.
* show higher parasitism of nests in small woodlots compared to larger ones.
* tend to parasitize birds smaller in size than themselves.