Historic Status

Moving east as European settlement began moving west, Brown-headed Cowbirds, or “Cow Blackbirds,” as they were known during much of the nineteenth century, were already a fixture in Massachusetts by the 1830s. Even at that time they were known for their lack of “philoprogenitiveness,” according to an 1839 report to the state legislature on the birds in the Bay State (Peabody 1839). The species’ brood parasitism, though, is only a moral flaw in the eyes of humanity, and not an economic issue. As such, the birds were rarely the target of farmers’ muskets. Forbush pointed out that when flocked together, they can form “a wandering, unattached light infantry of insect destroyers” (Forbush, 1908). Despite the fact that they arrived in Massachusetts opportunistically to take advantage of newly emerging farmland habitat, the eventual diminishment of this habitat has not deterred the cowbird, since it has adapted to lay its eggs in the nests of more than 200 species of birds. Instead of regressing to its historic distribution range like the Dickcissel, the Cowbird instead spread across the entirety of the United States during the twentieth century.

Atlas 1 Distribution

Brown-headed Cowbirds ranged from being ubiquitous to merely widespread in all corners of the state during Atlas 1, and overall they came in with 77% block occupancy. The birds were not missing from any more than 5 or 6 blocks in any ecoregion west of the Connecticut River Valley; in the Marble Valleys, they were found in every block but one. The Connecticut River Valley had a slightly lower density, and the Worcester and Lower Worcester Plateaus hovered at around 75% block occupancy, likely due to the higher ratio of forested land to active agriculture in these areas. The Coastal Plains’ matrix of forest and suburban habitat was well populated by cowbirds, but the more highly developed Boston Basin had less than 70% block occupancy. The Bristol/Narragansett Lowlands were also less populated than the Coastal Plains, and Cape Cod and the Islands reported only 63% of its blocks with breeding cowbirds.

Atlas 2 Distribution and Change

The Brown-headed Cowbird has demonstrated that, despite estimations of loss in states other than Massachusetts (McGowan & Corwin 2008), their breeding footprint in the Commonwealth is still increasing. In Atlas 2 they increased to 94% block occupancy, a notable net gain over Atlas 1. Their Bay State distribution is “bookended” by their lowest regional block occupancy – below 90% in both the far western Taconics and on Cape Cod. Aside from this trend, they do not seem to show a regional preference. From the Worcester Plateau eastward, newly occupied blocks far outpace losses, indicating a growth of cowbirds in the eastern regions.