With his bright vermillion hair, all slicked-back, it looks like he’s wearing an iridescent red cap. His quick and erratic, albeit graceful moves are almost artful and definitely meant for evasion, I'm thinking. Finally finding a suitable spot he stops, but his head turns quickly side to side, like a dope dealer checking for the narcs. Unsatisfied that the area is safe at the moment, he darts away, only to appear again just moments later.
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They are the oddest family and new to the neighborhood this year. They remind me of a cartoon show and comic book I viewed back in the late 1950s. As a child I enjoyed seeing Baby Huey's comparatively petite parents struggle with their sumo wrestler-sized offspring, whose strength and bearing would eventually wind up damaging some piece of furniture or belonging in the process. Oh, the blind love of parents… I can't help myself and pick up the binoculars to get a better look at these new guys in the area. I just find it fascinating that they don't seem to notice that their baby is a bit, hmmm, well "different," I guess is how I'd put it.
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They call it "brood parasitism" when the cowbird deposits her eggs in another's nest.
This warbler will feed and raise the larger fledgling cowbird as if it were her own.
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