Ever felt like some folks are just born jerks? Birds can relate. Take for example the uninvited speckly-white visitor to this robin"s nest: That smaller egg belongs to a baby cowbird whose mother sneakily laid it among the blue robin eggs when no one was looking. Once the baby birds all hatch, the cowbird will grow much faster and larger than its robin "siblings," soon becoming an only chick by muscling them right out of the nest. And if mama robin ejects the cowbird egg before it hatches, the cowbird mom may take notice and chuck the remaining robin eggs from the nest out of spite.
Freeloaders of the avian world
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Boxing Day in East Yorkshire, England
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Seasonal lights dazzle in Japan
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National Park Week: Wind Cave National Park
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Satla marshland in Bangladesh
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In the Highlands for Saint Andrew s Day
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Quiver trees in Namibia
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A towering view of the Pale Mountains
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Montreux, Switzerland, and all that jazz
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A fortress in the sky
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Te Rewa Rewa Bridge near New Plymouth, New Zealand
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Borrego Badlands
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Cheers! It’s National Wine Day
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Okefenokee Swamp
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Chapel of St. Michel on Lake Serre-Ponçon, Hautes-Alpes, France
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Caribou on the move
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Wild garlic in bloom at Hainich National Park, Germany
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Sutherland Falls in Fiordland National Park
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Glowworm caves in Australia
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Birch trees, Drammen, Norway
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The island fox’s incredible comeback
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Womens History Month
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Martin Luther King Day
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A willowy welcome to spring
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What a twist
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Welcome to ‘Hollywood North’
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International Day for Monuments and Sites
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It s time for spring
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Shark Awareness Day
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Who s hiding in the kelp?
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What s going on in this sky?