BIRDBRAIN!
Tiny dunnock tricked into raising a far bigger cuckoo
CHILDREN – they grow up so fast these days. But surely this poor dunnock must have suspected something was amiss when her ‘chick’ ballooned to twice her size within weeks.
In fact, she’s been duped into rearing a juvenile cuckoo.
Standing on the greedy bird’s back as she delivers a tasty morsel, the process of keeping the chick fed is a mammoth task. The image, taken in Essex, in England, captures a scene that is rarely witnessed by humans yet it occurs in countless nests after a wily adult cuckoo lays her eggs in another bird’s nest. The unsuspecting host takes on the role of raising the chick – which shamelessly disposes of other eggs.