I don’t have kids, but I imagine that being forced to unknowingly raise someone else’s children — either in addition to your own or after yours have been murdered — would be at the top of every parent ...

There are other animals besides the cuckoo who smuggle their offspring into another animal's nest. The synodontis multipunctatus, which lives in Lake Tanganyika in Africa and is better known as the ...

Several animal species display brood care, a phenomenon where ‘caring’ parents provide their offspring with food and protection against predators. However, there are many others that prefer not to do ...

Those are the first lines of a song written in 1979 by Bill Staines, once a regular on Garrison Keillor's radio show. The brown-headed cowbird, our resident cowbird, does have a place in the choir, ...

Brood parasitic birds lay their eggs in the nests of others, sparing themselves the expense of rearing their own young. The resulting coevolutionary arms race includes sophisticated defenses by hosts ...

There is an azure blue egg hidden in a hanging basket of ferns on our front porch. It belongs to a female house finch that just about caromed off my forehead last week when I tipped a watering can ...

It was nature’s version of an Easter egg hunt. Dr. Claire Spottiswoode, a professor at the University of Cape Town who studies avian (bird) brood parasites, was working in Zambia to learn more about ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Common cuckoos aren’t known for being model parents. Rather than ...

Several animal species display brood care, a phenomenon where 'caring' parents provide their offspring with food and protection against predators. However, there are many others that prefer not to do ...

Biologists have demonstrated that 'evolutionary experience' as well as learning protects cichlid fish from the brood parasitism practiced by the African cuckoo catfish. There are other animals besides ...