Last night, August 15, 2008, while waiting for a hamburger order at Swenson's in Stow, Ohio, my friend Jay Abercrombie pointed out a juvenile cowbird hopping under the cars near a couple of house sparrows.  To our amazement, the cowbird baby was following the sparrows doing begging behavior and the sparrows seemed undisturbed by their young companion.  While we didn't actually see the sparrows feed this baby, they certainly appeared to be acting as parents and teaching it to hang out at fast food joints.        
Kathleen Bradley- who called a cooper's hawk a sharp-shinned last spring and vowed never to post again.

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]