Evolution of Brood Parasitism in Birds

[@DeepakThakur24]

Brood parasitism is so heart breaking. Twice in front of my eyes I have seen sunbirds being parasited by cuckoos. Having no understanding of this natural mechanism, all I could do was watch in vain the sunbirds feeding the cuckoo 100s of times each day working hard to make it grow. Do they know they are growing their own potential enemy? I wonder how many more years or centuries will this process last. What if the cuckoos lost all their hosts due to decreasing population? Are they on the brink of endangering their own existence along with their hosts? How this evolutionary process works? Great and very informative video! ✌🏼

[@musaran2]

"Mimicry - When Animals Copy Other Animals" by "Deep Dive" is a superb documentary covering this. Cuckoos have a lineage of female per host, remembering that host's nest and evolving to mimic its eggs. Hosts evolve to reject the intrusion, eventually extincting that lineage. Occasionally a female cuckoo gets the "wrong" nest, parasites a new hosts that has little to no rejection, starting a new lineage.

[@DeepakThakur24]

@@musaran2 Thanks. Great recommendation.

[@charlesgerety1403]

These Birds are Natures A-Holes

[@frankenscience3802]

Thanks for watching! Be sure to subscribe and check out my other videos too - I think I’ve improved a lot since this one! :)

[@DanielBorn_Bad_AI]

Brilliant video! It won't be long before one of these goes viral I'm sure. It boggles my mind how something like brood parasitism evolved. Thanks for sharing

[@yeetdeets]

The destruction of rejector nests makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If they make sure those who can recognize the parasitic eggs can't breed, those adaptations can't take hold. As such the target species becomes basically selectively bred to not recognize the parasitic eggs. This would only work if the "vengeful" behavior is widespread, and/or the behavior is cheap fitness-wise.

[@maryhollyshimmerdepedro2654]

This channel needs more attention. I swear this is one of the best science channel.

[@Skittenmeow]

I had a juvenile cuckoo brought into the vet when I started vet nursing many years ago. It was a horrific monstrosity, very creepy looking. Crawling with parasites as well. It wasn't until another staff member ID'd it that I even knew they were in Western Australia

[@VuLe-s4i]

You had me until you said it was from Australia 😂

[@Sara-gl8ue]

The parasite was attacked by parasites. Nature is truly fascinating.

[@derdu]

Really nice video! Your video quality truly is amazing

[@Vinsomer]

I'm so curious as to how innate this really goes. When you think about it, the parasitic eggs that go on to fledge never end up making contact with their biological mothers. So it's not as if the act of brood parasitism is physically taught to them. Cuckoo chicks ejecting rival eggs and other hatchlings too, they come into the world blind and featherless, yet still with that survival instinct. I wonder if they would eject fellow cuckoo eggs, if they could even tell. The thought of this behaviour being passed down the generations through genetic code alone is fascinating, it also makes me view brood parasites in a more sympathetic light. It's almost as if it's a compulsion, born from a mix of evolution and adaptation. It can't be an easy thing to break. I do think anthropomorphising these creatures plays a large role in how we as humans seem to hold these parasites in such contempt. Our brains are built and sized differently, we operate on a much higher level. It's not fair to expect or impose our morals, or expect a change, when this behaviour is so engrained into who they are as a being.

[@mbdulka]

Most Western countries are dealing with this ...

[@justinwilliam6534]

Did you know that maybe some dinosaurs are brood parasites including a troodontid egg found in a oviraptorid nest.

[@paulkubic786]

No human value judgement in cowbird behavior or evolution, I admire the females spatial memory, finding the host nests! Big hippocampus, for sure. They are my common feeder bird, living between stables, and farms! We have many passerines, and many cowbirds!

[@malcolmholmes2596]

Just incredible they have the built in instinct to push out the other eggs as a baby.... It seems so evil and manipulative to mess with the young like this but im guessing only very healthy populations of common birds get parasitized? Otherwise if they were too successfully, that would just wipe out their host species. It makes me wonder if you could engineer an extinction by somehow introducing a brood parasite to say a pest bird. Also are there species that does this but also make their own nests as a backup or last resort? Interesting to see if birds still have the ability or instinct to do it

[@SuarezDigital]

Holy heck this is amazing! Whaaa! You deserve more views!!! ;^;

[@frankenscience3802]

Thank you so much!! I’m glad you enjoyed the video! :)

[@carlos123duval]

Nah them cow birds need to be taught a lesson. They be pettier than petty ok 😂😂😂.

[@daniellee8162]

Cowbird: You will let me cuckold you OR ELSE! Basically how I think how they think.

[@BhavaniBhavani-pi5rv]

🤣

[@bennieboi7114]

They be….smh

[@h3r01nbby]

​@@bennieboi7114 do u criticize white southerners accents as well?

[@simonpetrikov3992]

@@h3r01nbbyunless you’re a southerner most people do

[@m136dalie]

This is one of the darker aspects of bird behaviour, although still fascinating

[@carlos123duval]

Yassss hunny teaching me new words like conspecific, I see you. Always engaging to watch your videos 😀

[@Outcastic]

This video was already on par with great channels, and the quality has only improved since

[@diemattekanzlei9124]

Wow I didn’t know bird life was so complex

[@namegeneric9344]

Underrated channel

[@markmessi9020]

Humans do this too, just watch any episode of Maury. If you know, you know

[@victoriamccartie]

Fab video, concise and informative!

[@manuelrodriguez5293]

Great video and a very interesting topic

[@W19-m2e]

Amazing video! Subscribed

[@frankenscience3802]

Thank you! Stay tuned for more videos!

[@Filmtvinterview]

Another cracking vid!!

[@sepehrrasouli2002]

Fantastic video essay! thanks!

[@frankenscience3802]

I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@podoju]

In stating that the costs of recognition error is greater than the costs of parasitism, is it assumed that producing a parasitic offspring is nevertheless a production of the host's offspring? Accepting a parasitic offspring results in all of the host's own eggs being ousted. Thus, if the definition of "production of offspring" is limited to the host's own eggs, then the cost of recognition error would be equal to the costs of parasitism - i.e., a total annihilation of the host's own eggs.

[@KendrixTermina]

so even though they make the hosts do the work, they take revenge if you dont raise their offspring. thats kind of beautiful.

[@dondep444]

Excellent video.

[@abstracter8627]

These birds don’t play!

[@dinosaurus598]

These Parasites should hunted by Owls and Eagles and the baby cuckoo do need to get pecked back at by the Mom bird that's not really it's mom since it's self defense.

[@btknight17]

This is fantastic content

[@Prima_Media]

Always wondered about this!

[@bryannelee5636]

Nice video

[@frankenscience3802]

Thanks! Check out my other videos too if you enjoyed this one!

[@iphonelovers8097]

Nicee bro keep it up 🙏🏽

[@frankenscience3802]

Thanks man! I’ve definitely got more videos lined up so please subscribe! 😃

[@mausamisingh2255]

Subscribed

[@frankenscience3802]

Thank you!!

[@JadeLorenzODespi]

Damn that's dreadful..... now let's watch some of these birds getting killed.

[@TheEves]

Interesting!

[@D-vb]

I feel like I'm watching a video about business economics but for birds.

[@craigsrck4382]

Definitely should have more subs than this..

[@Inpreesme]

Thank you

[@glockstitch]

Vivarium brought me here

[@thepersonwhoasked8396]

This subject is so interesting :0000000

[@frankenscience3802]

Thank you! Check out my other videos too 🙂

[@thepersonwhoasked8396]

@@frankenscience3802 don’t worry I always check out random people’s channel when I’m bored :]

[@vishnuvb6543]

Like you.

[@trinstonmichaels7062]

Trinston was here.. .

[@pixie-bo6wi]

I have my biology exam tomorrow

[@inko_lor]

this is a great video

[@jdoteasy]

This shit crazy asl.

[@Angel-gb9gi]

I would think they just dont have parenting instinct or nesting instinct so they lay their eggs and go.

[@jeffreardon9052]

At 6:24, the narrator says, "This mafia-like tactic may be an act of punishment or an attempt to force them to produce a new clutch." I would argue that it's neither, in the sense that I don't think the cowbirds ransack the host's nest out of anger or with the aim of teaching the host a lesson. That would be an example of anthropomorphism, i.e., attributing human emotions and motivations to these birds. From a biological perspective, the most objective and accurate we can be when discussing the reasons behind this "mafia-like" behavior is that it exists in modern cowbirds because their cowbird ancestors that exhibited this behavior produced more viable offspring that survived to reproductive age. We have no way to know, and no reason to believe, that the cowbird ransacks the host nest with some intention or goal in mind. We just know that when the cowbird mother goes to check on her egg, if it's not there, this automatically triggers the ransacking behavior. One might make a comparison to a possum "playing dead" when there is a threat. The possum is not "trying" to play dead because it "thinks" this will fool a predator; rather, when triggered by the presence of a threat, the possum involuntarily enters a coma-like state in which it can stay for hours until it "wakes up." In this state, its body also releases a chemical that smells like rotten flesh, which may help to fool predators. However, it can't be said that the possum is doing any of that with volition; it's an automatic, stereotypical response to a particular stimulus that tends to aid in survival. The cowbird's "mafia-like" behavior is likely the same type of involuntary behavior that persists in the species because the cowbirds that exhibit that behavior are, in the long-term, more successful at reproduction.

[@shadonnamarie93]

how you mad that someone don’t wanna raise your kids 😂

[@NaNa-j7b2q]

Omg is the coo-coo bird in this one?!oh i absolutely hate them!there awful yup there it is!how sad!i can't believe how grimey these birds are!omg!

[@kennymccormick4256]

Cowbirds are real jerks, man.

[@pixie-bo6wi]

Im so mad at them cow birds my bloods boiling

[@PaintedDog]

:45 The missed a lot of joke potential naming the one bird whydah instead of whydoh

[@user-rf3vz6fv7p]

in one day victims will learn basic calculus so there would be no chance for cockoos.)))

[@spikenotfound4634]

And cowbird to

[@zes7215]

no such thing as reject or cost or etc, cepuxuax, outx, do any nmw and any s perfx

[@prasongmccray9359]

Evil birds.

[@brandonerasmus1327]

Please

[@BobNatural-h5q]

Only pictures and no video is a pretty weak , it's not a video just a slide show and you want subscribers ? Nah I'm good