The Bane of Brood Parasites

When we hear the word “parasites”, most of us would assume it is referring to an organism that feeds off another. In brood parasites, in the avian world, it works a little differently. To put in laymen’s terms, it is when one bird species lays their eggs in a different species‘ nest, so that the parasite species do not have to take care of their young. Over the years, host bird species became wise to the brood parasites, but as a parasite does not give up that easily, the brood parasites have come up with various devious plans to fool the hosts.

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