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weariedfae@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Damn, my bird knowledge fails me. Too many rocks up in my noggin’.

I don’t get it. :\

Is it a situation like “Mommy mommy, chicken mommy!” from Milo and Otis?

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fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

The birds in this genus are infamous for laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. The female cowbird notes when a potential host bird lays its eggs, and when the nest is left momentarily unattended, the cowbird lays its own egg in it. The female cowbird may continue to observe this nest after laying eggs. Some bird species have evolved the ability to detect such parasitic eggs, and may reject them by pushing them out of their nests, but the female cowbird has been observed to attack and destroy the remaining eggs of such birds as a consequence, dissuading further removals. Widespread predatory behaviors in cowbirds could slow the evolution of rejection behaviors and further threaten populations of some of the greater than 100 species of regular cowbird hosts, favoring host acceptance of parasitic eggs in a mafia-like contest between cowbirds and other species.[7]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowbird

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- pete_the_cat@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Damn, the mother is brutal .“take care of my baby or I’ll murder your unhatched babies”
  
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  - embed_me@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s more like “I’ll destroy your offspring so that your discerning genes don’t get passed on. Those who raise our kids will at least have a legacy. I WILL hardcode your species to be more compliant”
    
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  - theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They also lay the eggs from needlessly higher than necessary, so that they might crack one of existing eggs while their at it
    
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