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...