In one of the more notorious dick-moves of the animal kingdom, parasitic cuckoo birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, forcing them to raise the cuckoo chicks as if they were their own. New ...

Nest building is costly. It requires time, energy, and constant defence from predators. For birds that raise their own young, this investment makes sense because it ensures survival of their chicks.

The cuckoo bird is famous for its parental strategy: rather than raise its own children it infiltrates the nest of an unsuspecting bird of a different species, replacing that bird’s eggs with its own; ...