Hello Gary,
Neat photo.
I wouldn’t put much probability on “cross species compassion”; if it is an impromptu feeding of a begging red-winged blackbird fledgling then, as Ken said, probably just instinctual behavior prompted by begging noise and posture from the fledgling.
On the other hand, do you have any more photos that show this fledgling more distinctly (e.g. front view, bill shape, etc)? My first instinct is a yellow warbler feeding a fledged brown-headed cowbird; which unfortunately, is all too common for completely different reasons. From this angle, I don’t know how to separate the two species in fledgling plumage.
From: cobirds@googlegroups.com [mailto:cobirds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gary Koehn
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 11:27 AM
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cobirds] Green Heron at Fountain Creek Nature Center, El Paso County
This morning I saw a Green Heron on the southern part of Rice's Pond.
The other thing I saw that I had never seen before was a Yellow Warbler feediing insects to a fledgling Red-winged Blackbird. I asked Ken Pals about this and he said this was not unusual. I look at it as an example of compassion in the natural world, cross species compassion. Ken says that it is an instinct that when a bird sees an open mouth he or she will feed it. The Yellow Warbler in this photo is probably a female.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbird42/7610417962/
I would be interested hearing from others who have seen other examples of this phenomenon of cross species nurturing.
Gary Koehn
Colorado Springs
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