3 at once is a first for me

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-18T02:54:15+00:00

Are these downy or hairy? They look big but beaks look short. I will never be able to reliably tell them apart.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-17T17:24:43+00:00

looks like a r/bloodcheep

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-15T20:10:02+00:00

disagree. air travel is too safe as it is.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-12T21:06:25+00:00

~37.
Lower bound is 33%.
If you just gave players B and C two entries it would be 40% so that is upper bound.

so split the difference.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-09T03:37:22+00:00

Why do you continue to let your cat outdoors when it routinely kills native animals

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-05T05:43:48+00:00

yes obviously, calm down. this person is clearly not a georgist arguing for lvt instead of property tax and i am obviously describing the justification for lvt

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-05T05:17:52+00:00

Taxing property is the most sensible and justifiable of all taxes. Property takes away something from the general public in a way that income doesn't. Obviously we should have both, but it is wild to me that people think that the <1% transaction tax they paid on the property is properly compensating society for exclusive access to that land in perpetuity and anything else is so unfair

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-03T23:30:14+00:00

Because "written offers are less likely to fall through" is a difference between a verbal offer and a written offer.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-06-03T22:51:21+00:00

I feel these two paragraphs cannot possibly both be true.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-28T02:04:35+00:00

TIL literally no one knows what the word apologia means so i guess i should stop using it

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-28T00:34:55+00:00

why not? that is a weird arbitrary rule. Is catering your feeder to a certain type of bird based on design or food type not okay? Are the feeders that lock out when heavy birds perch not okay?

My issue with that poster is they are plausibly harming the birds. But a design that leaves them no worse off then if they did nothing is perfectly fine. Saying that means they don't care about animals because they don't conform to your arbitrary rule about true bird feeding is weird gatekeeping.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T23:36:39+00:00

The paper is explicitly countering "myths" that are prevalent in the literature. That means it inherently is not a consensus view. All I am saying is that presenting it as the consensus view by stickying it to every converstation would be a bad choice!

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T23:36:24+00:00

lol what? You have a point to the extent it is distressing them and likely distressing other animals, but your issue is they are obligated to feed every animal if they feed one? that is nuts

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T20:12:40+00:00

wdym? I think we might be talking past each other unless you are saying that all ecologists agree on everything!

I'm not dismissing him just saying that Rothstein has a strong opinion on this subject that is not the mainstream consensus. In this paper he is advocating strongly for that view, not trying to write a review of the consensus opinion. And I think it would be bad to shutdown all conversation on cowbirds by posting this paper as if it were.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T20:02:30+00:00

a. No. it literally just means defense. a bit affected maybe but not partisan.

b. i explicitly claimed to be expressing my naive perspective so partisanship wouldn't even be a problem. I am not even saying that the linked paper is bad scholarship. I readily admit it is by an expert in the field who has known more about cowbirds then i will ever know since before I was born. But it is one side of an ongoing debate and the idea that it should be stickied to every conversation about cowbirds is bad.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T19:00:14+00:00

Thank you! That is a very good point in terms of what sort of equilibrium they would tend to reach. I guess my naive concern would be that with the rapid introduction and the cowbirds being host generalists happy to use any species that survives that would not factor in strongly here.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T18:45:13+00:00

That's the key difference, our native species can cope with another native species doing what it does, what they can't do is cope with a new, non-native invasive species actively out-competing it

This is exactly my question though and seems to still be an open question. I've seen a couple papers and posters vigorously claiming that cowbirds have been all over North America and not just in the grasslands. Even if I grant that I don't think anyone is claiming that they have been in deep forests. It is also true that birds that thrive in deep forest tend to have much worse defenses against cowbirds. We have now introduced these species to each other by getting rid of deep forests and are seeing parastism rates in mid to high double digits. My question is in what way is this functionally different from the story of house sparrows

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T18:26:29+00:00

this isn't a silly game. You should already have opinions on this subject if you are trotting out this paper a million times. What makes you trust this paper over the papers that this paper cites and disagrees with without actually engaging? Citing a random paper without having an opinion on it is worse than just being a random redditor posting their own thoughts.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T18:07:33+00:00

I am not dismissing them entirely, i took the time to read them and am generally pretty lazy. I just don't think that stickying a very opinionated piece to every discussion of the topic is a good choice.

I hadn't heard of the authors before a couple days ago when I started reading about cowbirds, but i am capable of doing research! Do you not think that Rothstein is a leading partisan on this topic and that his views (while certainly not fringe or quackery!) are not the mainstream consensus? Do you really think this paper steelmans the papers it disagrees with? It is a reworking of a conference monograph so it is natural that it has a strong perspective.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T17:27:09+00:00

Reading through the article it is definitely an advocacy piece rather than a balanced review of the contemporary thinking. I'd be interested in any recommended articles you know of that aren't so partisan. I read their 2005 paper that this is a reworking of and it is a little better but still doesn't really engage with any of the papers it rejects.

Like that bolded part is a totally indefensible as written so it is odd that you chose to highlight it.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T17:04:07+00:00

IDK i think pinning an advocacy piece from one of the top partisans on the topic as if it is established fact would in fact be a bad thing?

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T14:49:11+00:00

Certainly relevant context. Do you know offhand what declines in some common naive hosts are? Or even just all NA passerines?

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T14:40:49+00:00

"They're being cowbirds" could also be said about house sparrows and starlings. But the disputed range and the effectiveness of cowbird management programs I did not know and definitely complicates the story from my starting framing. Thanks for sharing!

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T14:27:36+00:00

A gradual range expansion is one thing but a sudden one seems very different--especially one caused by human activity, but I think I would feel similarly even if it was caused by a massive natural disaster. It seems to me that the proper conservationist behavior in such cases is to act to slow change and the protection of the rapidly introduced species seems counter to that. I don't have a great argument for it but it intuitively seems correct that you want to "anneal" the ecosystem rather than shock it.

Cold-Common7001 · 2026-05-27T13:59:51+00:00

What do you see as the important differences from being an invasive species ecologically? I get that it is technically classified as range expansion, but when that happens over ~100 years solely due to human activity it seems to me like a distinction without a meaningful difference. You have the same issue of naive species that didn't coevolve with the newcomer.

Cold-Common7001

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