Frans Gunterus, QPSA
About the Image(s)
Canon EOS R6, 1/500 sec at f6.3, ISO 2000. Sigma Lens 150-600 F5-6.3 DG OS HSM (Contemporary 015).
This Cuckoo Chick was fed by another species of a mother bird. In this case was Javan Prenjak. A family of Sylviidae. You might find another picture. Another species of mother bird feeds the same kind of Cuckoo Chicks. You might be wandering how can it be? In Indonesia, we call Cuckoo bird as Kedasih. Its scientific name is Surniculus. Cuckoo birds have some sort of ‘evilest attitude’. The cunning adult cuckoo takes over a warbler's nest to lay its own eggs. If you are interested, you can see their actions from the following link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAU5MTXmAPY&t=15s .
Then, the newborn cuckoo's instinct is to remove from its adopted nest any of the warbler's eggs. But more sinister is cuckoo's removal of the warbler's own newborn chick. You can see how the baby cuckoo did it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgIL8dbSMUA
In this picture. The mother Prenjak (and also the father). Both did not realize that they feed the Cuckoo Chick that awfully crafty murdered their real baby chicks. That’s why. There is a myth of the Kedasih Bird in Indonesia. It is believed to be a sign of someone's impending death.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
Like Ginny, I love the framing. Thanks also for sharing the natural history of the birds. In the use we have the brown-headed cowbird that also has this behavior. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.   Posted: 11/04/2024 14:38:45