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Brown-headed Cowbird

Molothrus ater

Classification

Class
Aves
Family
Icteridae

The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April. Taxonomy The brown-headed cowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in the Carolinas.

Distribution

(c) cello caruso-turiello, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by cello caruso-turiello · CC-BY
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Countries in the Picchu catalog
United States of America · 4,097,670Canada · 482,633Mexico · 18,590United Kingdom · 17Cuba · 15France · 10Iceland · 1