Strange things happen in the wild. Each living beast is as much a prey as it is a hunter. And in the wild, deception is a matter of life and death. While chameleons turn colours and other insects and animals rely on their skin patterns to fend off preying hunters, there are some species that have found a unique method to ensure that their offspring get a decent upbringing.
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While most birds tend to take care of their little ones till the time they are able to fly out of the nest, there are some species of birds that refuse to participate or have a hand, sorry, wing, in the rearing of their children. They rely on other birds.
Take the hawk cuckoo's curious habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests and then leaving the egg to its own devices and fate.
This past winter, I was in Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary outside Gurgaon, when I witnessed a curious thing. A jungle babbler feeding a juvenile hawk cuckoo which was at least three times its size. Here are the photos of that curious incident:
The juvenile hawk cuckoo, perched on this branch, was calling out to its parents for food. Unable to fly as yet, it relied completely on its parents for nourishment. In this case, the parents were a pair of jungle babblers in whose nest the mother hawk cuckoo had laid her egg. Note the size difference, the one on the left is the jungle babbler and the one on the right is the juvenile hawk cuckoo.
As the mother babbler approaches the juvenile cuckoo, it begins flapping its wings in anticipation and eagerness that it would get something to eat.
The mother babbler places some food deep in the juvenile cuckoo's mouth.
But before it can pull away completely, the juvenile cuckoo shuts its beak on the mother babbler's face, almost biting it in its eagerness to be fed.
A couple of seconds later, with the food safe in its belly, the juvenile cuckoo again begins demanding more food. This continued for about half-hour until the juvenile hawk cuckoo was fed time and again, and till it was not satisfied.
