COWBIRD TRAPPING UPDATE

Plateau Land & Wildlife cowbird trap.

There was a time when the Brown-headed Cowbird migrated with bison across the Great Plains. As birds on the road, cowbirds would lay their eggs in nests of other birds and then move on with the bison. After a cowbird lays its eggs in a host nest, the host bird returns to unwittingly raise the cowbird's young as its own. As typically larger eggs that hatch earlier than the host eggs, the cowbird hatchlings loudly vocalize their hunger, beg for food, and ultimately kick out the host bird's offspring. Back when cowbirds migrated with bison, the impact on a host species was not as great. Many songbirds when parasitized by a cowbird will simply build a new nest. If cowbirds were moving on down the road this would work, but, today, cowbirds hang with cows in fenced pastures. The cows don't migrate and neither do the cowbirds, which leave them to concentrate on one area and potentially decimate a species of host birds. If a songbird builds a new nest, the cowbirds are still around to parasitize that one as well. In fact, cowbirds are known to parasitize over 225 species of birds. Moreover, on average, female cowbirds lay an astonishing 40 eggs per year in other birds' nests.

While many argue the cowbird as misunderstood, the fact of the matter is that humans created this situation and, if we want to protect our songbirds, humans will have to take action.

Because Plateau believes the Brown-headed Cowbird poses a potentially dire situation for our native songbirds, we offer cowbird trapping and trap monitoring services. We have been trained and certified by Texas Parks & Wildlife to humanely dispatch the cowbirds and safely release non-target birds. The key time to implement remains until the end of this month when the songbirds are nesting. Plateau wraps up cowbird trapping in June as breeding season slows and the risk of trapping non-target birds (mainly juveniles) goes up. In addition to helping promote songbirds, cowbird trapping qualifies as an activity for Wildlife Management Tax Valuation purposes. According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, for each female cowbird caught, an additional 3.5 songbirds survive. By way of example, last year on one of our client properties a total of 49 male and 89 female cowbirds were caught and dispatched. Using the TPWD figure, the trapping that Plateau performed on that property resulted in 312 additional songbirds in western Travis County. Last week, a Plateau technician snapped the photo, above, while monitoring a cowbird trap on a client property. For more information on our cowbird trap sales and cowbird trap monitoring services, contact Plateau at (512) 894-3479 or toll free at (888) 289-9409 or email kbain@plateauwildlife.com.