Consoling by Derrick Marven
Hi Guys
On Sunday I was sat at my window with my daughter Sally and Irene when one of the few Purple Finch we have coming landed on one of my wooden props which I use for taking pictures. It was very obvious that this female Purple Finch was not well. I have taking down and no longer use silo feeders to help control the spread of this deadly decease, sadly I have several neighbors who still use this feeding method.
There was a small flock of Brown-headed Cowbirds on the ground around 8 birds 4 males and 4 females when suddenly they were disturbed and most flew up into the Winter Honeysuckle bush, this one female flew up and sat right next to the sickly Purple Finch and began to cuddle up. This went on for all of 10 minutes with the cowbird rubbing it’s head against the finch’s back, it was almost like the cowbird was consoling the finch in her day of pain. They rubbed wings and the cowbird gave the finch a little nudge but then went back to touching and rubbing. Even a little bill touching was observed by the cowbird. What surprised me the most was that the finch perked up after a while and the female cowbird flew down to be with her flock.
I have never ever seen anything like this happen with any birds showing what appeared to be some sort of caring for another birds dilemma.
I will leave this with you with pictures to see what you think. I will also be loading a video up on Facebook for those who indulge.
Derrick
