As We Wander

Birds are fascinating. The descendants of avian dinosaurs, they share a common ancestor with the reptiles of today, though they took a very different evolutionary path. That path brought not just flight, but fandom- distinctive and ubiquitous, these feathery goofs evoke a Pokémon-esque drive in many people to find all of them.

I am not immune to this. I doubt that is a surprise.

So with that preamble, I was wandering around staring at treetops the other day. (Pretty standard for me, really.) I heard these cowbirds long before I saw them, though- the pitch of their call is high and bright.

Once I found their location, I ended up watching them for about half an hour before going on my way and leaving them to it. Fully focused on each other, they paid no attention to my approach or how I eventually circled their tree.

A couple of birds putting on mating displays is no extraordinary find, considering that proclaiming one’s availability is one of the major forces behind birdsong. But perhaps this is the time to mention something called sexual dichromatism, an attribute found in many bird species in which there is different colors and/or patterns between the males and females of a given type. Cowbirds are no exception- which means these two lovebirds are both boys.

Could I be misreading things? Well, I do suppose it’s possible that they’re just roommates, but the infamous guerrilla nesting tactics of Brown-headed Cowbirds- leaving single eggs in the nests of other birds- assures that they didn’t come from the same home, and there were no other cowbirds in sight to receive their attentions. (And if you insist that they were just enthusiastically honing their mating dances for a later opportunity since practice makes perfect and all that, check out this observation report from an Oklahoma State University zoologist in 1958 in which a male cowbird repeatedly tried to copulate with a male House Sparrow- as the bottom.)

Queer animals absolutely exist and are important since biology is often used as a bludgeon against queer people. Yet those who most like to resort to that argument tend to have the least understanding of it. So during Pride Month this year, I’m going to focus on non-heteronormative animals, and with cowbirds, we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Because, yeah. Biology.

Happy Pride Month. Stay safe and stay yourself.