Parenting can be lots of work for a bird: all that flying back and forth transporting grubs and insects to a nest of demanding young. But some birds manage to forgo caring for their chicks — while ...

One of the most interesting topics discussed in my Ornithology class was about the “con artists” found in nature… Brood parasitism occurs when a female bird (the parasite) lays her eggs in the nest of ...

Cowbird mothers abandon their eggs in the nests of other bird species, but the chicks somehow manage to find their flock and learn what they really are. By Elizabeth Preston In P.D. Eastman’s classic ...

Egg-dumping refers to the behavior of a female who puts her eggs in another animal’s nest, leaving all other parental behavior to the host. Some animals are what you might call professional ...

Brood parasitism occurs when certain birds, such as cuckoos, lay their eggs in the nests of other species. This forces unsuspecting hosts to raise the parasite's chicks, often sacrificing their own ...

While most birds carefully nurture and protect their young, some species have evolved a more unconventional approach. Known as "brood parasites," these birds lay their eggs in the nests of other ...

A lot of us will change our wardrobe to fit into a crowd, and the brood parasite known as the cuckoo has used evolution to do the same thing. Because cuckoos lay their eggs in the nest of a host bird, ...

Avian obligate brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species that may provide care for the foreign offspring. Brood parasitism often imparts substantial fitness losses upon host ...