Lesser Masked Weaver Bird (Ploceus intermedius) ~ Recognizing Our Foe


There is a silent killer in the animal kingdom.  This killer is not even born yet.  It is an egg, small and innocent, sitting in a nest.  But when it hatches—and it will hatch before the others—it will spell death for the other chicks.  This is a cuckoo bird—an avian parasite.  It feeds off of the maternal bond of she who bore its victims.  The mother, believing the chick is her own, will continue to feed it until it outgrows the nest, until it kills her own young right in front of her.  Many times, the cuckoo ends up being much larger than the supposed ‘mother’, yet she never notices the oddity as the urge to care for the chick is so strong.

 There is another bird living in cuckoo territory, but this bird is a group-nester.  It is called the Masked Weaver.  These weavers keep an eye out for each other, in some cases even helping to build each other’s nests and clean up after each other.  These birds have developed a quite different nest structure.  Unlike warbler or fantail nests, these nests have a long, tubular entrance.  A female cuckoo is unable to fit up the tube to deposit her parasitic egg; thus, these eggs are safe from the killer cuckoo chick.

 How did they become wise to the cuckoo’s ways?  Why do the group-nesters see what the cuckoo is doing while the solitary birds are blind to its ways?  I think the answer lies in the group-nesting strategy more than the nest-building strategy per se.  What I mean is, any bird can build a clever nest that a cuckoo can’t get into.  But will the bird remember next spring?  And will the bird’s babies grow up to build such a nest?  This is the power of community: constant vigilance does not constitute fertile ground for an enemy.  A cuckoo cannot lay an egg in a nest that is watched over by so many careful eyes, many which are older and know what the cuckoo is up to.  I turn from these things to reflect on our spiritual life.  Our enemy, Satan, is a rotten bird who tries incessantly to plant evil in our lives.  We must be wise to his ways, guarding our delicate minds against powerful thoughts, which indeed may seem small and innocent, until they hatch and take over.  Romans 12v2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Furthermore, James writes “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1v14-15)  Like the Masked Weaver, we must build well the fortifying walls around the entrance to our minds and hearts, letting in what is right, and ready to expel what does not belong.

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