We've experienced this phenomenon first hand the past few weeks! Two cute little Carolina Wrens decided to make a nest in a hanging plant on our porch. Once the chicks hatched, however, we realized that one was MUCH larger (and uglier) than the others. We did a little research and realized that our wren nest had been Cowbird bombed!
After reading other accounts of similar situations, I panicked that the greedy Cowbird baby would monopolize the wren parents, and the wren babies would die. It was so much bigger, louder, greedier, and uglier than the wren babies, that we affectionately named our cowbird baby Monster or "Monsty" for short.
Over the span of two or three days, we watched him grow bigger and stronger at an incredible rate. Just a few days after we discovered him, Monsty decided he had been squished long enough in the tiny wren nest and ventured out to explore the hanging plant. After perching at the top for several minutes, he took his first flight, zooming across our yard into some nearby trees. It was pretty amazing for a first flight.
Sadly, that was the last that we've seen of our Monsty. We don't know if he's still out there, or if something got him...he was pretty stupid for flying away right before nightfall. The wren parents are continuing to feed their real babies, which is a good sign. Hopefully, they will survive as well and we'll have a bunch of little Carolina Wrens!
Here is a series of photos that I took several weeks ago documenting another very large Cowbird baby following a Chipping Sparrow around (the Chipping Sparrow must have been its adoptive parent).
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