Brood Parasite

This story has been sitting in my drafts for over three years and I never had time to develop or write it. It is based on a couple I know in real life and the story is extremely complicated and sad. So I will probably never finish it. But I'm grateful for the challenge where I can steal its beginning, and apply it to the life of reed warblers whose nests are often invaded by cuckoos, the most famous brood parasites in the bird world.

They were childhood sweethearts, each other's first love. He was handsome, she was beautiful and a good nest-builder. Everyone, not just reed warblers, admired them for being such a picture-perfect couple. No one was surprised to see them building a nest together, dreaming about their future chicks.

One admirer who watched them with particularly keen interest was a cuckoo. She wanted to have a chick, but she didn't want the burden of taking care of the baby when it was born. She eyed the reed warblers because their eggs, even though smaller in size than hers, had the same camouflage coloring. The warblers most probably wouldn't even notice when she put her egg in their nest.

The cuckoo was patient, watching the warblers for several days. Her patience paid off: one day, when the warblers left to look for food and more twigs to reinforce their nest, which was already superb, the cuckoo checked their nest and saw five new eggs in it.

Before they returned, she snatched one egg and hid it in a tree hollow nearby. She then laid her own egg in its place, proud that she had managed to do it unnoticed. Then she returned to the tree hollow. Eating the warbler egg, she thought that from that point on, it was up to her chick to fend for himself. For some reason, she was sure it would be a boy.

When the warblers came back, the father warbler noticed something different about the nest.

"Don't you think it's strange that this egg is so much bigger?" he asked.

"Maybe this chick is going to be bigger and will protect his siblings?" the mother suggested.

"You think it's going to be a boy?" the father asked.

"Of course, at that size, it must be," the mother responded, admiring the egg. "He'll be just as big, strong, and handsome as his father. Look what we've made! It's so perfect!"

The cuckoo bird was happy to hear that. Her boy would get the love and protection he needed to grow up without his real mother. She decided to linger around a little longer to see the birth of her son.

When the day came for the eggs to hatch, two of the four warbler eggs hatched first. Both parents chirped happily and went to look for food for their nestlings. When they came back with worms in their mouths, the big egg started to hatch as well. Through the crack, they could see a big red mouth with a well-formed beak.

"Wow, that chick is going to be a big mouth to feed," the father warbler observed.

"Big, strong chicks need a lot of food," the mother said. "We'd better go and get some more."

As they flew off, the cuckoo chick broke out of its egg. It was big, bold, and ugly. The cuckoo bird admired him from a branch nearby. "My beautiful baby, you know what you need to do."

She watched her chick pushing the two weak, newly born warbler chicks out of the nest into the lake one by one. The nest was quite deep, so it took him a while, but he used his back to push the chicks onto it and then straightened his legs with force to get each chick out.

"Good boy," the cuckoo bird cackled. "I now know you will be all right." And off she flew to look for another nest to lay her second egg.

When the warbler parents came back, they saw just the big chick and the remaining two eggs in the nest.

"What happened to the other two chicks?" the concerned father asked after putting a large worm into the enormous mouth of the cuckoo chick.

"I don't know," the mother said, also very concerned. "Do you think they could have fallen out by accident?"

"You have built such a deep nest that it is impossible for small, newly hatched chicks to fall out of it."

"Maybe a water rail got to them. I thought I saw one nearby yesterday."

"It's very strange."

"It is, but we still have someone to take care of," the mother replied, looking lovingly at the cuckoo chick. "Go get some food, and I'll sit on the remaining eggs and try to warm this biggie."

As soon as the father left to search for food, the cuckoo chick pushed the mother's belly. She got up and sat on the edge of the nest. The cuckoo chick opened his mouth wide and cried.

"OK, OK, I'll go get some food as well," the mother warbler said. "Seems your siblings are in no rush to hatch."

She flew off, and one of the remaining eggshells cracked. Before the chick emerged from it, the cuckoo chick put the egg on his back and ejected it out of the nest. It softly splatted into the lake. Then the cuckoo chick did the same to the last egg.

When the warblers came back, the mother had a big moth in her mouth. The cuckoo chick swallowed it in one gulp. The father dropped a worm into that open food abyss and asked, "What happened to the other two eggs?"

The mother checked out the nest, concerned. "There are no eggshells, so they didn't even hatch. Maybe a snake got to them?"

"It's very weird. Seems like we only have one mouth to feed now. But what a big mouth!"

"I'm telling you, he is just like you, big and strong, my love!"

"Are you joking? He can swallow me whole and not even choke!"

"C'mon, let's go get him some food."

And so they spent their days looking for food for the growing cuckoo chick. The warbler parents tried to satisfy his growing appetite, but the more he grew, the more he wanted to eat. The more he ate, the larger he grew. The parents were exhausted, and the father was growing more and more frustrated.

"He seems insatiable. Soon, he will start eating us."

"How can you say that about our son?" the mother warbler said. "He does eat a lot, but it's because he is still growing and needs that food."

"Exactly. Don't you find it weird that he is growing this big? His feathers look nothing like ours, and his beak is enormous!"

And so they went back and forth, arguing but still feeding the cuckoo chick. At some point, he grew so big that he was taking up the entire nest.

"Maybe it is time to teach him to fly?" the father asked.

They both tried to encourage the cuckoo chick to come out of the nest and start flying, but the chick only opened his mouth wide, asking for more food.

"I can't do this anymore," the father finally said. "We are raising a very lazy chick here. All he wants to do is sit in the nest and eat. It is time for us to fly south. Everyone else has left already."

"I will not leave my baby behind," the mother warbler said. "Don't you see he is not in a position to fly? If we leave, he will die here of hunger!"

"Well, I've had it. My brothers and sisters are leaving tomorrow, and I'll go with them. If you are not going, it's up to you, but I'm not staying here to die of cold."

"What kind of a father are you?" the mother warbler said.

"I'm not sure anymore that I'm his father. He doesn't look or act like me or any other warbler I know!"

"Are you accusing me of cheating?" the mother warbler said as the cuckoo chick opened his mouth again and cried for food.

"I'm not accusing you of anything, but all the other birds are talking..."

"So go with your other birds, you coward!" the mother warbler said and flew off to look for worms, which were harder and harder to find as it was getting colder.

And so the father warbler left with the remaining flock to migrate south. The mother warbler continued to look for food for the cuckoo chick, who was now so big that he was spilling over the nest. But he still refused to fly. The mother warbler had no space in the nest anymore, and a lot of times she just sat on the edge of the nest or hid in the tree hollow for a little sleep that she could catch between constant feedings.

And then one day, she was so exhausted that she fell off the edge of the nest into the lake and drowned. The cuckoo chick just curiously followed her with his eyes, void of sorrow or sadness.

Several hours passed without anyone bringing him food, and he started to cry even louder. And then he heard an unfamiliar voice: "Time for you to fly and join us, my boy. Let's go get your other siblings."

It was, of course, the cuckoo bird.

"I'm not going to feed you. You are big enough to do that for yourself now. But I'll help you to get out," she said, pushing him out of the nest from beneath and watching him flap his wings clumsily.

"Fly, my son, fly!" she cried as he finally caught the wind and started flying. "Just like so many others before you. And many more to come!"

Documentary about the cuckoo chicks: