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A BIRD! THERE WAS A BIRD! It was a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird. Ivan was not happy. The cowbird was in HIS territory. Ivan started to chase the baby cowbird. The cowbird jumped onto a lump of grass. Ivan still chased it. The cowbird jumped off the lump of grass. Ivan still chased it. Ivan followed the cowbird around the yard until it flew away!
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| A young Cowbird looking for bugs |
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| Ivan chasing the bird |
Now I will tell you a little bit about Ivan. Ivan is a Russian Tortoise and these tortoises eat dandelion lettuce, celery, clover and kale. Russian Tortoises are NOT from Russian they live in Afghanistan. Tortoises have a nice strong shell. That shell is used to protect the Tortoise. But when we take Ivan out to the backyard we still have to watch out for predators. By that I mean we have to watch out watch out for racoons. Racoons are smart critters they would probably find a way to pull him out of his shell. Some tortoises are smart other are not so smart. A tortoise can recognize its owner sometimes.
Now I will tell you a little bit about Brown-headed cowbirds. These birds lay their eggs like the Cuckoo bird. They don't make a nest like other birds, they do something different. The female cowbird finds an other bird's nest. She lays her eggs in the other bird's nest. The cowbirds eggs hatch and the other birds eggs hatch. The mother bird thinks that the cowbird chicks are one of its chicks, so she takes care of them too. Cowbird chicks are sometimes bigger than the other bird, so cowbird chick eats most of the food. The other chicks don't get a lot of food and can die.
Now that it is cold Ivan can not go to the backyard anymore. But maybe next summer Ivan will see his cowbird buddy again!
Bye for now!
But remember Nature is every where! Even in your backyard!
CassowaryGirl
That's sounds soooo cool! That's kind of sad that the other birds in the nest with the cowbird babies don't get as much food and can die :(
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