Are Brood Parasites the Worst Birds in the World?

Before I started keeping birds, I had only heard of one brood parasite without even really knowing the term – the cuckoo.  I remember hearing stories of murdered chicks and destroyed eggs and a giant offspring which could never belong to the parent, taking over their lives.  It seemed tragic and unfair, but that’s nature.

Since becoming a bird-keeping, I have learned a little more about the subject.  There are quite a few different types of brood parasites like cuckoos, but not all of them are as destructive to the host nest.  And some are.

Lesser Honeyguide

Honeyguides

The gentle sounding Honeyguides are African birds who are often followed by locals to find bee colonies, as they feed on the wax and the bee larvae, hence their name.  However, they are not as sweet as they sound because they lay their eggs in other birds nests.  Not only that, but they throw host eggs out of the nest or even puncture the eggs with their thin, sharp beak to kill the chicks.  The bird they parasite depends on the exact species of Honeyguide but can be anything from a woodpecker to a warbler.

Whydahs

My (hopefully) hands on experience with parasitic birds will come from a finch called a Pin tailed Whydah which I have recently purchased.  These beautiful little birds are black and brown when out of breeding condition, but when ready to breed, the male moults into a stunning little black and white bird with a tail that is easily twice the length of his body.

My Pin-tailed Whydah cock

Pin-tailed Whydahs parasite the nests of a little waxbill called the Common Waxbill or the St Helena Waxbill.  But the good thing about this relationship is that the Whydahs don’t destroy the waxbill eggs and the waxbills rear both sets of chick together.  The Whydahs have evolved that they can mimic the calls of their host species and are judged by the female based on how good they are at this.  The chicks also resemble waxbill chicks when they are born so their foster parents readily accept them. 

There are various species of Whydah, some of which are known as Indigobirds, many of which aren’t kept in the UK. All of them parasite one of the smaller finch species that are native to their local areas.  For example, the Village Indigobird lays in the nests of the Red-billed Firefinch and the Quailfinch Indigobird lays in the Quailfinch nest.

Ducks

The Common Goldeneye is a parasitic duck, well technically.  These ducks live in the US and Canada as well as across Russia, and the Scandinavian countries and the female lays her eggs in the nest of other species, and they will be raised with the foster parents family. 

Common Goldeneye

Similarly, the Black headed Duck from South America, also lays in other birds nests and use them as a feathered incubator.  They lay the eggs in nests of all sorts of birds including even gulls and birds of prey and when the chicks hatch, they are out of the nest in no time at all and are able to fend for themselves within a few hours.

Conclusion

So it was nice to know that not all brood parasites are as destructive to the host species as the cuckoo and meant I was happy to have a pair of Whydahs in my aviary.  Here’s hoping they breed!