u/Cold-Common7001

In most post where someone says anything slightly negative about cowbirds they tend to get piled on that cowbirds are "part of the ecosystem too" etc.

But my understanding is that in most of the US cowbirds are invasive species in all but name. With new land use and deforestation they dramatically expanded their territory to places they never would have been without human intervention. And in those places they take advantage of naive species that didn't coevolve with them and have no defenses against their brood parasitism. These often are the same species that are already threatened by the land use changes that invited the cowbirds in.

This seems no different from the case of house sparrows other than that the house sparrows were physically transported whereas the cowbirds were invited by land use changes. This may be an important legal distinction but why is it an important ecological one?

I'm not an ornithologist and am even pretty new to birding, so while I express a strong view it is loosely held. So what am I missing here? What would the ecological impact of removing MBTA protections of cowbirds and/or cowbird eggs in regions where they are not native be? I am especially interested in the northeast in particular since I live here. Are there any serious experts who advocate for doing so?

Location: Central new jersey

Last month the American goldfinches stopped coming to my feeder very suddenly. There were 30+ recorded visits a day throughout early April, then 3 visits on April 15, and no more since then. We live right on a forest and can still hear them singing fairly often. The feed has changed a few times (but not at that date) but is always a strictly vegetarian mix of seeds and nuts. It also can't possibly be bad since the birds always finish it within 2 days.

I know it is no longer winter and there are more natural food sources, but we really haven't seen any drop off in our other visitors and certainly nothing like the sudden drop off of goldfinch.

Is this a known goldfinch thing? Any hope of luring them back? I hung up a nyjer sock a couple weeks ago, but so far have only had purple and house finch visitors.

I can't help but feel that this is very rude of the goldfinch. I supported them through the winter and then as soon as they were starting to get all sexy and yellow they abandon me.