the cowbird and the chickadee

So we have nesting chickadees in our front nesting box again this spring. We think it's the same pair, learned to tolerate us, because when we take down the box for a look, mama no longer flies away. So mostly what we've been seeing is the mama bird.

But a few days ago Sophie saw her fly out and went to look at the eggs. This is what she saw:

One of these does not look like the others! Although our web research tells us that cowbirds rarely lay an egg in a cavity nest, one sneaky cowbird did just that. The bigger darker egg is a cowbird egg, inside is a future cowbird nesting destined to hatch first and out compete it's chickadee "siblings". My first instinct was to lift the egg out with a spoon but they are native birds and they are protected so I let it stay.

Yesterday we saw this inside the box:

One hungry cowbird with it's mouth open waiting for lunch, sitting on top of a smaller chickadee. The cowbirds are not only first out of the egg, bigger, and stronger, but their mouths are red which guides the parents to feed it first.

We put out some meal worms to make it easier for the birds to keep up with the needs of all the nestlings and are hoping for the best.