Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Passeriformes > Icteridae > Molothrus > Molothrus ater

Molothrus ater (Brown-headed Cowbird)

Synonyms: Muluthrus ater; Oriolus ater (homotypic)
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a small obligate brood parasitic icterid of temperate to subtropical North America. They are permanent residents in the southern parts of their range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April.
View Wikipedia Record: Molothrus ater

Infraspecies

Molothrus ater artemisiae
Molothrus ater ater
Molothrus ater californicus
Molothrus ater obscurus

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Molothrus ater

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
0
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
7
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 2.46419
EDGE Score: 1.24248
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  42 grams
Birth Weight [3]  2 grams
Female Weight [5]  38 grams
Male Weight [5]  49 grams
Weight Dimorphism [5]  28.9 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Generalist, Agricultural
Wintering Geography [2]  Southern U.S./Mexico
Wintering Habitat [2]  Generalist, Agricultural
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Granivore
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  40 %
Diet - Seeds [4]  60 %
Forages - Mid-High [4]  10 %
Forages - Understory [4]  10 %
Forages - Ground [4]  80 %
Clutch Size [1]  4
Clutches / Year [3]  1
Fledging [1]  10 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  130,000,000
Incubation [3]  11 days
Maximum Longevity [3]  17 years
Female Maturity [3]  1 year
Male Maturity [3]  1 year

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (281)

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Caribbean Islands Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent And The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks And Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands - British, Virgin Islands - U.S. No
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Providers

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Cardiofilaria pavlovskyi[8]
Ceratophyllus diffinis[9]
Porrocaecum ensicaudatum[8]

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Audio

Play / PauseVolume
Provided by Birds Of A Feather on Myxer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Mulvihill, R. S., Leberman, R. C. & Leppold, A. J. Relationships among body mass, fat, wing length, age and sex for 170 species of birds banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve. (Eastern Bird Banding Association Monograph no.1) Hellertown, PA: Eastern Bird Banding Association, 2004, 184 p.
♦ 6Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0