seen here is the foster parent (right) marvelling with pride and joy for all the hard work of feeding and tending to this unusually upsized baby and at the same time casting a little doubt on the appearance of this dissimilar looking thingy.
This is a perfect mismatch with one species raising another totally non-related species.
This parasitic cuckoo fledgling is tended by its host parent, a common Iora.
The pathetic host parents are completely oblivious that they have became the victims of the cuckoo’s plot and in spite of that, totally committed to its parental duties regardless of its baby’s outlook and evil doing. The very baby the Iora has help to raise has a dark secret that nature is hiding from them. This big fat baby is also the murderer of its own offspring. Sometime in the early stages of the nesting cycle, the cuckoo chick is genetically programed to destroy all the original Iora eggs/chicks by pushing them out of the nest without the real parent’s knowledge. Being the planned sole survivor, he will receive all the food and care that he needs to grow up fast and strong. Interestingly, the host parent will never know the terrible truth and continue to tend to the alien chick despite the huge difference in look and size of the cuckoo. Little do they know that they have brought up a monster. KNN
That seem cruel but nature invariably has a purpose to everything which we have yet to find out.
Meanwhile all we can do is to let this unkind but interesting behaviour continue to fascinate us until nature decide to give up its secrets.
There is even a darker secret. Its remain undiscovered until now. A series of shocking events have unfolded which reveal something totally unexpected and never being observed in the natural world since the dinosaur time. Read on…
see the black and crimson oriole feeding the long legged cuckoo.
@jurong eco garden, sg
