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The Way of the Cuckoo: How Brood Parasites are so successful: prejudice in nature
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:20 am
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:20 am
Brood Parasitism-TED talk
These are the eggs of parasite birds (cuckoos and honeyguides, to name a couple)
See how they Mimic the host egg patterns?
Here is a picture of a host bird feeding a cuckoo chick many times its size. By demanding so many resources, it starves and limits the host birds’ true offspring.
The Nature of the Cuckoo-David Attenborough
Fascinating stuff. They are one of the most successful birds, all on the backs of others. The ways they have adapted are devilishly cunning and cruel.
The Way of the Cuckoo
The Robin and the Warbler,
The Sparrow and the Wren,
All toil finding twigs and string,
To make their nests, and then,
In those fruits of their labor,
They lay a clutch of eggs,
Their progeny, who hopefully,
Will hatch, peep chirp and beg,
Counting on tireless fathers,
Depending on their mothers,
This is the way, for most they say,
But alas, there are others,
Distasteful but successful,
Yes I’m afraid it’s true,
Brood parasites, an awful blight,
The Way of the Cuckoo,
The Cuckoo worries not for work,
Only for sloth and play,
Lays eggs in nests of others,
While the parents are away,
Some host eggs it will push out,
And others it will kill,
Those that survive, are left alive,
To have a worse fate still,
The cuckoo chick is cunning,
And it will hatch before,
And so convince, it’s host parents,
To feed it, more MORE MORE!
It oft attacks the others,
starving them it will try,
By mimicking in multiples,
The baby birdie’s cry,
It’s taxing on the parents,
And before long it shows,
Their own brood is malnourished,
While the cuckoo grows and GROWS,
You’d think the birds would wonder,
You’d think that they’d get wise,
To this crook who don’t share their looks,
And is six times their size!
Perhaps they feel some pity,
And truth, I must confess,
To force others to raise their brood,
Is key to their success,
Some birds will mount defenses,
But the one sure way to win,
Is to give it no foothold to start,
And Never let the cuckoo in.
The cuckoo isn’t the only brood parasite, you can learn about more Here
These are the eggs of parasite birds (cuckoos and honeyguides, to name a couple)
See how they Mimic the host egg patterns?
Here is a picture of a host bird feeding a cuckoo chick many times its size. By demanding so many resources, it starves and limits the host birds’ true offspring.
The Nature of the Cuckoo-David Attenborough
Fascinating stuff. They are one of the most successful birds, all on the backs of others. The ways they have adapted are devilishly cunning and cruel.
The Way of the Cuckoo
The Robin and the Warbler,
The Sparrow and the Wren,
All toil finding twigs and string,
To make their nests, and then,
In those fruits of their labor,
They lay a clutch of eggs,
Their progeny, who hopefully,
Will hatch, peep chirp and beg,
Counting on tireless fathers,
Depending on their mothers,
This is the way, for most they say,
But alas, there are others,
Distasteful but successful,
Yes I’m afraid it’s true,
Brood parasites, an awful blight,
The Way of the Cuckoo,
The Cuckoo worries not for work,
Only for sloth and play,
Lays eggs in nests of others,
While the parents are away,
Some host eggs it will push out,
And others it will kill,
Those that survive, are left alive,
To have a worse fate still,
The cuckoo chick is cunning,
And it will hatch before,
And so convince, it’s host parents,
To feed it, more MORE MORE!
It oft attacks the others,
starving them it will try,
By mimicking in multiples,
The baby birdie’s cry,
It’s taxing on the parents,
And before long it shows,
Their own brood is malnourished,
While the cuckoo grows and GROWS,
You’d think the birds would wonder,
You’d think that they’d get wise,
To this crook who don’t share their looks,
And is six times their size!
Perhaps they feel some pity,
And truth, I must confess,
To force others to raise their brood,
Is key to their success,
Some birds will mount defenses,
But the one sure way to win,
Is to give it no foothold to start,
And Never let the cuckoo in.
The cuckoo isn’t the only brood parasite, you can learn about more Here
This post was edited on 1/19/22 at 3:10 pm
11
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:22 am to fr33manator
Thought this was going to be about Jimbo or Mullen.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:23 am to fr33manator
I bet the Cuckoo wouldn't be a dick about pushing the elevator button though
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:28 am to fr33manator
Keep thinking the same about these white knights raising other men's kids and thinking it makes them a "real man". Fascinating.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:32 am to fr33manator
The animal kingdom is something else. How the frick did these birds learn to do that?
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:35 am to squid_hunt
quote:
Keep thinking the same about these white knights raising other men's kids and thinking it makes them a "real man". Fascinating.
My wife's boyfriend is proud of the way I'm raising his and my wife's kids.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:36 am to squid_hunt
It’s not coincidence that the etymology of the word cuckold comes directly from the French “Cucu” (their word for cuckoo bird)
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:36 am to fr33manator
Not gonna lie, this post makes me sad. Not only does the Cuckoo parent not have to expend energy raising its young by passing it off to another species, it actively starves the legitimate offspring from their chance to survive.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:37 am to Centinel
quote:
My wife's boyfriend is proud of the way I'm raising his and my wife's kids.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:40 am to Glorious
quote:
The animal kingdom is something else. How the frick did these birds learn to do that?
It seems that when a trait for giving one’s offspring is discovered that gives it an advantage over others, it is repeated and encouraged in subsequent generations until it’s second nature.
No clue how the just hatched chick knows to push other eggs out the nest though.
Some birds have developed some defenses, like destroying eggs that don’t look like their own and chasing cuckoo birds out of their territories.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:42 am to fr33manator
The Brown-headead Cowbird is the main one in most of the Southeast.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:43 am to Oilfieldbiology
quote:
Not only does the Cuckoo parent not have to expend energy raising its young by passing it off to another species, it actively starves the legitimate offspring from their chance to survive.
Yes, limiting the offspring of the more self sufficient species by robbing them of resources and attacking their young may seem like a boon for the cuckoo, but what’s going to happen when the other birds don’t have enough resources and migrate to another area?
The cuckoos don’t have those internalized skills and so end up cannibalizing each other and causing a localized collapse.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:45 am to fr33manator
quote:
It seems that when a trait for giving one’s offspring is discovered that gives it an advantage over others, it is repeated and encouraged in subsequent generations until it’s second nature.
No clue how the just hatched chick knows to push other eggs out the nest though.
I wonder if maybe they started as one of those birds that use abandoned nests and went from there. There had to be some form of progression. No way they went from normal parenthood to "lol you're gonna raise my baby and its gonna kill your babies"
This post was edited on 1/19/22 at 10:46 am
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:45 am to fr33manator
quote:Wow sounds like a large segment of our population
They are one of the most successful birds, all on the backs of others. The ways they have adapted are devilishly cunning and cruel.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:47 am to fr33manator
That’s a problem for the next generation to figure out. Parasites only care about immediate propagation of their offspring.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:53 am to LegendInMyMind
quote:
The Brown-headead Cowbird is the main one in most of the Southeast.
quote:
The brown-headed cowbird eggs have been documented in nests of at least 220 host species, including hummingbirds and raptors.[12][13] The young cowbird is fed by the host parents at the expense of their own young. Brown-headed cowbird females can lay up to 36 eggs in a season. More than 140 different species of birds are known to have raised young cowbirds.[14] Unlike the common cuckoo, the brown-headed cowbird is not divided into gentes whose eggs imitate those of a particular host. Some host species, such as the house finch, feed their young a vegetarian diet. This is unsuitable for young brown-headed cowbirds, meaning few survive to fledge.[15]
So apparently one way to combat them is to stop feeding them whatever foods they desire.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:56 am to red sox fan 13
quote:I thought the same thing.
They are one of the most successful birds, all on the backs of others. The ways they have adapted are devilishly cunning and cruel.
Wow sounds like a large segment of our population
Sounds like our generational welfare culture.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:57 am to fr33manator
It actually sounds like the cowbird simply shits an egg into any nest she can find and hopes the baby is well fed.
Posted on 1/19/22 at 10:57 am to bhtigerfan
quote:
Sounds like our generational welfare culture.
As a wise welfare queen once asked me, "Why should I work if I don't have to?"
Posted on 1/19/22 at 11:00 am to fr33manator
quote:
So apparently one way to combat them is to stop feeding them whatever foods they desire.
Yep. I read somewhere that the Cowbirds are adapting and learning which species nests to target in that regard. The continued changing of their habitat may have slowed down that progress, though. I wish I could find that article/study, but I doubt I'd be able to.
The Brown-headed Cowbird is actually a decent looking bird. You can get some really good pics of it with bright sunlight that shows off its color. They get along with other birds for the most part, too. They just have the whole deadbeat parent deal going against them.
ETA: that same study talked about host species learning to identify the parasitic egg and they destroy it before hatching.
This post was edited on 1/19/22 at 11:02 am
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