The sight and sounds of birds usually bring pleasant thoughts to mind; many of them cheer us with their pretty colors and sweet songs. But this is not true of all birds. For example, certain species are too lazy to build their own nests and hatch their young. They make other birds do this work for them.
Cuckoos are one of these birds. They lay their eggs in the nests of warblers, sparrows, magpies, wrens and even crows. Some of them lay 22 or more eggs during one nesting season, placing just one in each nest. They do this in only 10 seconds, while the nest’s owner is away, kicking out one of the original eggs and replacing it with their own. When the mother returns, she doesn’t seem to notice the new egg, so it hatches along with her own. Sometimes the cuckoo baby kicks the original eggs out of the nest when it hatches. Though the baby cuckoo is not at all like the mother’s chicks, she feeds and cares for it as if it were her own, even when it grows to be twice as big as she is! Some bird species have somehow changed their egg colors over the years to avoid this parasite, but the cuckoo has changed her eggs to match, soon after.
The cowbird is another parasitic bird. Her chicks can be quite a bit larger than the proper chicks of the mother, but the host mother always takes care of the cowbird, often to the neglect of her own chicks.
The honeyguide also lays her eggs in other birds’ nests for the nest’s owner to hatch. The female often pecks holes in the original eggs to ensure their egg is hatched and the chick is cared for. Young honeyguides are vicious and peck to death the chicks of the true mother when they hatch.
The adult birds do not always get away with these activities. Sometimes a bird realizes a strange egg is present, rolls it out of the nest or leaves it and makes a new nest for her eggs. But scientists are beginning to think that cuckoos do vengeance on nests where their egg is rejected, destroying the nest and harming the babies or eggs. They are starting to think this is one reason birds will raise these chicks in spite of the loss to their own brood.
This parasitic behavior makes us think of Satan who is always looking for an opportunity to put evil thoughts into our hearts and minds. The Lord Jesus said that the thief only comes to steal, to kill and to destroy, in our opening verse. The Lord Jesus came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly (see John 10:1010The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)). If we listen to the Lord Jesus in our lives, we will have this truly happy life. It is good to remember that what Satan really wants is to destroy our lives.
Did You Know?
Not all types of cuckoo birds lay eggs in the nests of other birds.
Messages of God’s Love 12/29//2024