If thou gazest long into the Pit, the Pit will also gaze into thee

Ape+lust wrote:http://imgur.com/QzAR4tS.jpg

The cuckoo has hit on the mother of all adaptations, a phenomenon called brood parasitism. Instead of spending huge amounts of time building a nest, brooding eggs, and feeding the voracious young until they fledge, the female cuckoo recruits an individual of another bird species to do all the work for her—a full-time babysitter. That way, the cuckoo can use its time and resources maximizing its reproductive effort without the enormous expense of childcare.
A female cuckoo simply lays one egg in the nest of another species, say a reed warbler or a dunnock, where there is already a clutch of eggs. The cuckoo’s egg then nestles inconspicuously among the others. Inconspicuously? Yes, for the female cuckoo lays an egg that mimics pretty well the other eggs in the nest, so the foster mother can’t easily detect the intrusion.
(...)
What happens next is sad, but a remarkable adaptation showing nature in all its red toothiness and clawdom. The cuckoo chick hatches and proceeds to destroy all its competitors—the other eggs and chicks—leaving it the sole recipient of foster care.

Ape+lust wrote:http://imgur.com/yg8pd2P.jpg