Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 10:56:39 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Felley Subject: Grackle being fed by robins Comments: To: birdchat MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This weekend, I saw a pair of American Robins feeding a fledgling grackle over a period of a couple of days. I wonder if this grackle baby was cross-fostered by the robins. Here are some more details: My immediate neighborhood supports a colony of Common Grackles (to the distress of many, since the adults dispose of their nestlings' poop-sacks on top of cars and outdoor furniture - much like people who drop their baby's diaper in the supermarket parking lot). Several weeks ago, a number of grackle nests were dislodged from trees around my yard (this was during the same storm that engendered the La Plata, MD tornado). I'm wondering if a female grackle ready to lay dumped her egg in a robin's nest when her own was destroyed. The same pair of robins (I'm pretty sure, though we have several pairs locally) was also feeding a fledgling robin that weekend. Has anyone seen or heard of grackles dumping their eggs in other birds nests, or seen robins voluntarily feeding the fledglings of other species? Jim Jim Felley Smithsonian Institution Washington DC ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================