Towhee Helps Cardinals Feed Their Fledglings
Towhee aelps Cardinals Feed Their Fledglings.-When two parent Cardinals (Richmon&ena curdirurlis) guided their three fledglings to a tray of seeds on my window sill at Globe, Arizona, a male Brown Towhee (Pipilo fuscus), a companion resident, joined them in the shelling and feeding task. His smaller, conical bill was entirely satisfactory. If the fledglings were not at the tray, the towhee would seek them out in the near-by trees. The three adults worked together in complete harmony for about three weeks. The female cardinal was the first to end her care and later the towhee did so; the male cardinal continued to feed one retarded young for two more weeks.
It is significant that the begging young were not orphans or parasitic young and also that this male towhee had just completed a normal breeding cycle. He and his mate had reared two young in a nest on an ivy-covered trellis five feet from the window, and after hiding the fledglings in a near-by thicket for a few days, they coaxed them to the ledge for feedings. The family had scarcely disbanded when the cardinal family arrived. This male towhee had remained near the house all winter, often entering the doorway. A month after helping to feed the cardinals the towhees raised a second brood at another nesting site.-ADA. ANTEVS,, The Corral, Globe, Arizona, July 7, 1947.
