A rare example of brood parasitism recently observed in our village

Brood parasites are organisms that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy is found among birds, fish or insects, involving the manipulation and use of host individuals either of the same or different species to raise the young of the brood-parasite.

A common cuckoo being raised by a reed warbler

In the case of birds, this relieves the parasitic parent from the investment of rearing young or building nests, enabling them to spend more time foraging, producing offspring, etc. Additionally, the risk of egg loss to raiders is mitigated, by having distributed the eggs amongst a number of different nests.



Guess which egg was laid by a brood parasite caption

One of the brood parasites, which is a rather uncommon summer visitor to our region, is the Striped cuckoo (Afr. Gestreepte Nuwejaarsvoël). Instead of caring for its offspring, this species is an obligate brood parasite that has lost the ability to nest and uses host parents such as the Arrow-marked babbler (Afr. Pylvlekkatlagter) to raise its young.

An Arrow-marked babbler

Both the male and female Striped cuckoo fly around acrobatically to distract the host birds. The male continues the distraction while the female lays the egg. Unlike many other species of cuckoo, the newly-hatched Striped cuckoo chick does not push the other eggs and nestlings out of the nest. It leaves the nest after about ten days and becomes independent in four to six weeks.

A Striped cuckoo

Several residents recently observed a family of Arrow-marked babblers feeding a young Striped cuckoo. Normally it has a loud call, usually of two or three notes, kleeo-kleeo or kleeo-kleeo-kleeo and a faster che-che-che-che, However "our" cuckoo mimicked the babblers almost to perfection.

Piet Combrink (Unit 6), who kindly brought this occurrence to the blogger's attention, fortunately took a picture of a young Striped cuckoo being fed by a family of Arrow-marked babblers near his unit. 

Piet's picture

Click HERE to read more about brood parasitism.