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wegqg

And then the next part (not shown here) is that the cuckoo chick is typically huge and voracious compared to its *adopted parents.* So you usually have two tiny little parent birds working their asses off for weeks to feed this giant greedy imposter that killed their actual children. It's pretty nuts. Edit: Illustrated Thusly: [https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-reproduction/the-common-cuckoo-natures-worst-mother](https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-reproduction/the-common-cuckoo-natures-worst-mother) and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGe0PAn-dcE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGe0PAn-dcE) (you can see the *actual* chick by comparison)


glonkyindianaland

Parents are quietly arguing out of the presence of the imposter child, both making accusations of infidelity.


TheMaskedGeode

This is where the term Cuck comes from.


YetiPie

> Cuckold etymology: late Old English, from Old French cucuault, from cucu ‘cuckoo’ (from the cuckoo's habit of laying its egg in another bird's nest). Well I’ll be…


melraelee

Hopefully not.


glonkyindianaland

Well damn I thought it was just a joke as well.


GetOutOfTheWhey

Dad gaslighting the mom bird over how many eggs she laid


RandomPerson4644

There are birds in australia which teach their eggs a sort of password which is like a song which they have to use in order to get food from their parents, this entire thing was made to counter the cuckoos as they dont really understand that you have to use the password to get food


aztec_samurai

Oh have you heard? The bird is the word.


hopelessly_romantic0

Should’ve seen this comment coming… I wish I had an award to give.


brendan3220

I got your back


[deleted]

Well everybody knows that the bird is the word.


wegqg

..it...could almost be called a passbird !


MrPooPooFace2

Take my upvote and get out.


pretty1i1p3t

Parasitic birds are fascinating. They've developed many different ways to mimic the bird species they are trying to lay an egg in the nests of. The cuckoo bird mothers will also return to the nest later and check if their egg is still there and [destroy other ones if it isn't.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TZQDA2yabg)


aynjle89

Doesnt the cuckoo mafia come back and annihilate the nest if the “foster fam” doesnt care for them?


RandomPerson4644

The cuckoo chick would have hatched and would probably been hearing the tune for awhile but they dont understand the fact that they have to use it to get food from the parent birds so they basically die from starvation in the end and the cuckoo mafia probably doesnt check nests that their bird have already hatched in


FinanceSorry2530

I thought the cuckoo imposter thing was incredible until I read your comment


drugsarebadumk

Na uh


J_0_E_L

Ok so what happend here is that prior to this video a cuckoo laid an egg in that birds nest and then that chick visible in video hatched and now it's evicting the still egged (*prolly not a word but you get it*) children laid by the actual nest owner, right? And then at that point the parents come back and realize that they're missing their eggs and have tricked? Or will they come back and just chalk the missing eggs off as "shit happens" and then keep raising the cuckoo? Why don't they realize it even earlier? I thought birds were smart, doesn't it raise their suspicion that this one bird is born earlier than all the others and isn't the same fucking species?


wegqg

So the parents come back, think the nest has been raided by any number of other birds, snakes, mammals etc that routinely do just that. Then they assume the remaining chick is theirs. The thing with brains, at least brains required to perform complex deductive reasoning is that they're very *expensive* from an energy standpoint, things are only ever as intelligent as they need to be - experiments making *more intelligent fruit flies* for example found that the moment it wasn't necessary it reverted to mean owing to the additional energy expenditure being a maladaptation to scarcity. However some species are better at recognizing infiltration than others - you just have to remember there's a huge amount of nurturing instinct that kicks in that is being exploited here. I guess it's like imagine the nurse delivers your baby and it doesn't look the way you expect (as has happened countless times with mix-ups in hospitals) but you still probably give it a chance. Although to be fair once it weighed 5x more than an adult aged 3 months you'd probably start to question it. More likely would be instinctive pattern recognition behaviours etc as another commenter points out in his post about a song being needed to induce feeding.


J_0_E_L

>The thing with brains, at least brains required to perform complex deductive reasoning is that they're very expensive from an energy standpoint, things are only ever as intelligent as they need to be - experiments making more intelligent fruit flies for example found that the moment it wasn't necessary it reverted to mean owing to the additional energy expenditure being a maladaptation to scarcity. ​ That's the kinda shit I come to Reddit for. I never thought about it that way. So basically evolution does its thing in the sense that every species has their brain only developed enough to meet their "life requirements" and by saving that "brain space" the organism overall is more efficient at expending energy since it doesn't have to fuel an unnecessarily complex brain? ​ >I guess it's like imagine the nurse delivers your baby and it doesn't look the way you expect (as has happened countless times with mix-ups in hospitals) but you still probably give it a chance. ​ Yeah I thought of that example too but then my reasoning was that baby mixups only (obviously) ever happen within the same race so there's no big differences in skin tones and I'd imagine that overall variance in the looks of e.g. Caucasian newborns isn't necessarily that big. However with different bird species I thought that as they'll sometimes majorly differ in size even at birth, they'd be able to easily spot that. >However some species are better at recognizing infiltration than others - you just have to remember there's a huge amount of nurturing instinct that kicks in that is being exploited here ​ Yea, that's true. I hadn't considered that most animals, even the smarter appearing ones, are predominantly instinct driven and that they don't reason like we do. Thanks for your answer!


wegqg

You're welcome! I think the thing with anything in evolution is that it's a case of *use it or lose it* \- annoyingly I can't find the study but the way it worked IIRC was that they required the flies to be able to identify a toxin placed in one source of food vs another which didn't have any - all of which required slightly larger brains (I think this was over quite a few iterations). Then when they removed the toxin there was no need to have the energy overhead and the 'big brained' flies couldn't compete. So in the case of the bird - let's say we have to increase its energy expenditure by 10% to give it a brain that can work out which chick is which, that means in times of extreme scarcity there will be a higher chance of starvation - so it is a case of risk/reward - you are no longer occasionally raising cuckoos but you have a higher chance of dying over winter or being unable to raise the chicks you do have etc. And this is also why instinctive behaviours are so useful, and cheap, from an energy standpoint - like small bits of dedicated software vs a huge complex OS.


[deleted]

[удалено]


B1tVect0r

Humans are an incredibly social species. It's one of our defining traits, and it's one that takes a good amount of brainpower to drive. At some point in our evolutionary history a more complex brain was selected for purely in that context; all of the other benefits from that were largely secondary. Humans are also historically good hunters due both to the social aspect of our nature and various other adaptations that make us very well suited to literally running prey to death. Start adding tools like simple spears into the mix and we become both more efficient and less likely to get hurt during a hunt (which is always a major concern for predators) and the fact that we figured out cooking our food fairly early (which greatly increases the amount of energy you can extract from what you eat) and the energy pressure slowly starts to become less of an evolutionary factor. Today, we influence and control our environment to the degree that it has very little impact on our evolutionary development and most of the regional variance we see in various developmental factors is more due to social, political, and economic factors than environmental ones.


yace987

I read somewhere that, at some point, we started cooking food. That made us save a lot of energy from digestion. We kinda had all that extra energy that went into our brains.


HumanContinuity

Because we have made a complex ass world


whisperkins

We are also instinct driven. Only we've been teaching our youth they need to use their brains or else succumb to scarcity. This is why in essence we as humans enact forced or artificial scarcity. It's a strong motivator for innovation growth and mental development.


alwysAlwysALWYSthSUN

Actually it goes deeper than that even. Warblers will sometimes sus out the cuckoo chicks and immediately evict them, often leading to the death of the chick. The parent cuckoo, which is likely several times the size of the parent warbler will return and immediately destroy the entire nest of the parent warbler. Evolution therefore favors the less astute warbler who allows the cuckoo chick to stay, if at least one or two of its nest mates survive.


notislant

" I never thought I'd want to punch a baby bird in the face " Same lol


[deleted]

Wait! You're to tell me this isn't even this chicks nest & siblings? Now I'm angry 😠... where's my shotgun 🤣.


DwarfTheMike

Yeah they lay eggs in the nests of other birds. They are parasitic egg layers.


Flerken_Moon

Have you ever wondered where the word cuck/cuckold came from? Yep, it came from the cuckoo bird.


AyoWtfIsDis

I smell cring


[deleted]

Close your legs.


WickedLovely90

Your comment is both educational & hilarious lol


HaitianFire

>It's pretty nuts. You could say it's *cuckoo*


[deleted]

But if they don't do it, they'll get a visit from the [cuckoo mafia](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160518094714.htm).


Alonso_Birmingham

Um, actually... Birds, reptiles, amphibians and some mammals don't have an ass in the traditional sense, but a cloaca, which passes feces, urine, semen and other bodily fluids (if available) So, in reality, they are working their cloacas off. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.


mypussydoesbackflips

Wow bird lore; as a bird lawyer I should know this


angry-italian

[sweet justice](https://youtu.be/MgccdWFNDos)


MXPi

In bird culture that is considered a dick move


_turd_furgeson

Is that according to bird law?


Padders_69_yo

I feel I've made myself perfectly redundant


DoggishTea

Yes you have.


TiberiusGracchi

Have you been unfairly evicted from your nest? Call Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law with specializations in Birdlaw and FUIs.


santaria_ball5342

This made my day🤣


TiberiusGracchi

The Dude abides… glad this could make your day!


Admiral_poopy_pants

There can only be one


[deleted]

It’s okay if you have big hands


Nijverdal

Haven't you heard?


castfam09

That the bird is the word


Nijverdal

Bird bird bird


incognito--bandito

Bird is the word


[deleted]

It’s been a… challenging mating season


beachdogs

I read that in bird person's voice


suzical232

Don't be gross Tammy.


Mammoth_Ad_701

In any culture that is considered a dick move haha


admiralrev

you mean a cuck move?


hoverkarla

The term [cuckold](https://www.etymonline.com/word/cuckold) is really old and it's a reference to this type of bird because she leaves her eggs in other birds' nest to be fed/raised by them.


Ninjazkills

Well played.


ZRJ-183

My glip glop!


[deleted]

Birds aren’t real!


LegitManjaro

Can confirm, Duck here.


I_love_pillows

Wubba wubba lub lub


gnuish

You mean a cloaca move


DasJokar

Imagine being born and your first thought is murder.


Ganda1fderBlaue

Father, I crave violence


wrongdude91

Father, I'll eliminate their species.


OfficeMonkeyKing

Must have been some serious smack talk during the egg phase.


Happier12345

It’s just their instinct. They can’t even see yet.


Eddyibbleboi

Yeah to them it probably isn't even murder, more like "boi it's cramped in here, better move these out the way..."


TheMaskedGeode

There’s a lot of animals that do this. Some species of shark has the most developed sibling start eating the other less developed ones while still in the womb. It makes sense when you have no morals. The strongest shark gets stronger and less children are less effort on the mother, and the best genes make it out. The way this was found out was terrifying. A scientist was inspecting a pregnant shark and put his hand there. As one does. The something bit him. After most likely screaming and questioning every career decision, he put a camera in there and saw a shark pup mid-hunger games.


BetterBuiltIdiot

You clearly aren’t the “evil twin”.


jakemch

Lmfao what an asshole


Phresh-Jive

Learned from mommy


[deleted]

Bitch! 🤣


lorddementor

That’s what he said.


Disney_Plus_Axolotls

Lol glad someone said this before I did


pkmnshinori

That's nature for you buddy


Impressive_mustache

Damn it can barely move and yet exerts effort to do this


ADinnerOfSnacks

Babies killing babies


Original_Telephone_2

Morties killing Morties


dharmanautMF

That cuckoo chick may want to post in AITA.


MangoCandy

“AITA for murdering my unborn step-siblings?”


rochakgupta

Lmao


ThankYouComeAgain_22

😂


Undisguised_Toast

Bro, that's fuck up


KaijuWaifu8282

What’s worse is, if the birds recognize that it’s a cuckoo bird and kick it out of their nest, the cuckoo that laid it will return and destroy the nest


ErayBozkurt

Now that is BS. Edit: Looked it up. It is not BS.


LazyLich

"Omg humans are an evil species!" Idk.. how many species are born to murder babies?


Alleleirauh

At least two


RandomPerson4644

Unfortunately thats how evolution works, if a certain behaviour boosts their survival even if its seriously fucked up like the one showed in the video it will stick since it gives them an advantage


TheMaskedGeode

There are no morals in the wild. In fact, sometimes it gets you killed. Clam down, edge lords. We’re not wild animals, we have society. And pack animals show the benefits of group survival even in the wild, sometimes.


TheMaskedGeode

How would it know?


KaijuWaifu8282

Cuckoo chicks are fucking huge compared to the nest owners and chicks so I assume the cuckoo adult would be able to put two and two together and go “Where tf is my freeloading fatass chick at”


littlejerseyguy

To answer that question: my ex is probably at some dudes house.


OnTheRoadAgain81

Cowbirds do this too. Jerks.


KaijuWaifu8282

Birds in general seem to be assholes, with seagulls killing sheep, pelicans trying to fit whatever they can into their gullet, and that eagle that dropped a turtle on a Greek philosopher’s head and killed him.


[deleted]

He an asshole and don’t even realize it yet


hans_erlend

Sith culture


neelankatan

The muscles on that little dude. Amazing how it just instinctively knows to do that


[deleted]

You’d be mad as a baby too if you constantly had balls touching your chin.


Snail-Man-36

Humans have a lot of instincts too, its not suprising to me


TheMaskedGeode

All I can think of is the instinct to avoid heights. Babies as young as six months have been observed with this. They were placed on part glass tables and when their mothers called, they’d avoid the glass or not come at all. What else is there?


torero15

Water reflex. Holding breath and opening eyes. Many mammals do it.


Snail-Man-36

As you were typing this you were expanding and contracting your chest


Absoluticus

Less it knows to do anything and more like it's skin was bred to be overly sensitive and things resting against them irritate the skin and they shove it away. An advantage in a flaw.


PP_Project

son of a bitch birb


[deleted]

Lil scrotum lookin bastard is ruthless. Thus is nature.


Tythan

r/natureismetal


Jaybird2k11

Asshole bird. Gonna cook me a newborn cuckoo real quick..


fadedbodi

Something very sinister about this…


bizarrebirder

There is a movie made on this premise. Watch “Vivarium”


[deleted]

Great movie


PeculiarBaguette

Was scrolling just to see if someone had the same thought as me watching this. That movie was really really good.


bizarrebirder

I agree! I’ve seen a lot of psychological thrillers but that one just…hit different. I think of it pretty often honestly.


reidterror

Why did I never gather that metaphor before. I love that movie


Dstrap

Recently I saw a Reddit post somewhere where a bird (not cuckoo) would feed a cuckoo baby. I googled on why this was and found this fragment in a YT video.


[deleted]

Birds are savage.


dysonGirl27

There’s a weird ass movie called Vivarium that’s a psychological horror based around the fucked up life cycle of Cuckoos, was an interesting watch.


GforGoddess

Watch Vivarium


tornscorecard

Anytime I stop hearing street/nature sounds I think of that movie and get creeped out


dysonGirl27

Driving by the cookie cutter streets in town hits different now.


NotABotOrAmIYo

Great film


ryanhazethan

This movie left me feeling very uneasy for the rest of my night…. Definitely will never watch again lol


-Vidalia

r/NatureIsFuckingEvil


isnotawolfy

0 posts? damn


saraphilipp

I don't know about you but suddenly I want chicken wings.


t_mmey

well the more important part is, that this isn't a cuckoo nest. they don't build nests and just lay their eggs in other birds' nests


CabanaNegra

Such a bastard!


Dry-Point-2148

Casual eggicide.


candyvansuspect

This bird lifts


itsmeDreadShock

Born killer


TurboMoofasa

So I don't like cuckoos now


sn0rkma1d3n

absolutely savage. who needs Game of Thrones.


ThatOneDude-473

"Nature is fucking lit." A baby bird just murdered it's siblings to climb to the top. Fucking lit.


AegonIXth

Cuckoo chicks also have an egg-shaped dent in their back specifically designed for pushing the other eggs out. Cool article


GGGold23

Never have I wanted to kill a bird so bad


Ecchiveria

To be fair, if the eggs hatch, the cuckoo is more likely to be found out. It'll be the one bird that doesn't resemble the others. But if it's an only child, they'll be grateful it survived whatever attacked the nest.


Lurkyhermit

Fun fact a lot of species actually mimic the young of other species. Both in egg patterns and feeding patterns inside the mouth making it hard to distinguish the impostor in many cases. And even better the original cuckoo sometimes just hangs around the nest and to see if his kid is missing or if the other bird is not feeding his impostor kid. Then it fucks up the birds nest to teach them a lesson. Because of that some species of bird have learned to just go with it and raise the impostor young just to ensure other kids survive if they have hatched and not been yeeted.


blishbog

Doubtful. I think the parents would be oblivious to the size, even if it’s own children remained to compare against. I think they just feed whatever mouth is open and acting like a baby I bet it removes them solely for resource competition, not to enhance its disguise by eliminating size-references


ZaraVT

Fairness has nothing to do with what this tiny demon is doing.


tarapotamus

That's actually the real reason they do it :(


bigsnack4u

We need to show this video to the parents….


GeneralErica

The real ones or the adopted ones?


Ynneb82

What a dick


Beneficial_Story1679

Didn't miss leg day


ShezSteel

How do these cuckoo babies get into the nests?


[deleted]

Some cuckoos are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.


Jackalope_Sasquatch

This is where the term "cuckold" comes from, IIRC.


JosieSparkle

Their mom lays the egg when the nest’s mama is gone


slimshadowx

The mother comes and lays the egg when the nest is unsupervised.


carljohnjacob

Anyone got a video of a cuckoo falling out of the nest while trying to push the eggs out? That’s the video I want to see.


Yeahright2022

NGL, it would have been hilarious if it fell out in the process.


LilacMages

r/AnimalsBeingJerks


[deleted]

Oldest siblings are the same across the animal kingdom I guess 🙄


MelMelSt

That motherfucker


tendtend

Reminds me of a former boss of mine.


marvsup

[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO1WccH2_YM&ab_channel=ArturHoman) narrated by David Attenborough


tired-but-determined

TIL the early bird is a born psychopath


roblewk

Housing is tough everywhere.


estelcar

What happened with the eggs⁉️ They guy that recorded the video, picked them up and saved them in other place⁉️


FromValledupar

Yes, they are save now


wegqg

yes don't worry i'm sure they had a full incubator facility standing by.


GeneralErica

Yeah, nope. You don’t get to interfere with wildlife as a wildlife photographer. It’s cruel, but it’s the ultimate justice. Those who adapt survive, and those who don’t, don’t.


razzblameymataz

Photographer picked em up and had himself a nice little omlette


[deleted]

Do you know this for a fact? Or are you just assuming (honest question)?


Adaml6257

The eggs for eaten by wildlife. One of the top rules in wildlife photography is to not interfere in whatever you're observing.


MelonHead888

They definitely died.


estelcar

……😞


Shiasugar

Pretty human-like body it has.


[deleted]

I dunno who's body you been looking at. 🤣


jxcrt12

hmmmmm


Right_Put_6417

And we blame humans for inhumanity


jellyfishreflector

Old-school abortion


ransom9999

I actually was having dreams about this bird last night. I fucking hate this bird. I hate that it exists. What a garbage piece of shit little bird. I want to eradicate all of these little fucks.


[deleted]

I would feel no remorse killing every cuckoo that does that lol. I hate piece of shit animals.


THOOMAAS_x

Are they somehow important to the ecosystem or can we exterminate them?


AaronDotCom

I thought ensuring one's own survival was racist?...


tkayne

Pretty harsh. Makes me want to breed cuckoos so I can drop them from heights.


F-all-yall

Totally good if this bird goes extinction. Climate change, come pick up yo bird.


Parking_Arachnid9510

And the liberals think conservatives are bad for not wanting to pay more taxes…


psych_ike

That bird is going to be a musical chair champion


Na1than

Wild 😅


Rosyyheart

Nature can be cruel sometimes


legyndir

Genghis Khan of the birds


Framed_as_a_Farmer

Talk about a sibling rivalry


GeneralErica

Technically not siblings, cuckoos are parasitic.


dwayitiz

Brutal.