Okay, but why put eggs in another bird’s basket?

E16. What if the secret to raising more babies was to never raise a single one yourself? Dr. Chris Balakrishnan, Associate Adjunct Professor of Biology at East Carolina University and co-founder of Nerd Nite, has spent his career studying the strangest birds on the planet: the ones that outsource parenthood entirely.

In this episode you'll hear about:

The evolutionary arms race between brood parasites and their hosts, from mimetic eggs to alien-looking chick mouth patterns
How the "password hypothesis" explains how brown-headed cowbirds avoid imprinting on the wrong species
Why host-switching in African parasitic finches can drive the rapid formation of new species

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262
Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516718
Redhead audio contributed by Jessie Berry, ML139672
Canvasback audio contributed by Arthur A. Allen, ML3537
Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML140981
Pin-tailed Whydah audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML14489
Village Indigobird audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML14484
Zebra Finch (Australian) audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML226233
Prothonotary Warbler audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML85158
Kirtland's Warbler audio contributed by Rudolph Little, ML13982

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Jaksot(36)

Okay, but what's the deal with Darwin's finches?

E35. Eighteen species of small brown bird on a pile of volcanic rock have taught us more about how evolution actually works than almost anything else on Earth. Not because Darwin figured them out. He ...

13 Elo 36min

Okay, but what's the deal with nests?

E34. Not all birds build one, but for the ones that do, a nest has a single job and a shockingly wide range of ways to get it done. Dr. Vanya Rohwer, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell Univer...

6 Elo 29min

Okay, but how do birds handle a heatwave?

E33. When the air temperature climbs past a bird's own body temperature, staying cool stops being free and starts to cost them water they may not have. Dr. Blair Wolf, University of New Mexico, has sp...

30 Heinä 26min

Okay, but how does wildfire smoke impact birds?

E32. Wildfire smoke is blanketing more of the map every year, and it turns out a smoky sky changes everything for birds, from how they breathe to whether we can find them at all. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot...

23 Heinä 31min

Okay, but did birds invent music?

E31. If a bird sings a phrase worthy of Beethoven, is that music, or just biology in a nice outfit? Dr. Hollis Taylor, a violinist, composer, and ornithologist, has spent more than two decades recordi...

16 Heinä 29min

Okay, but is the dawn chorus getting quieter?

E30. That wall of birdsong outside your window at sunrise has a name, a structure, and a surprising amount of drama. This week Scott talks with Dr. Dan Mennill, a professor at the University of Windso...

9 Heinä 34min

Okay, but what's it like as a bird at the top of the world?

E29. Standing at 11,000 feet, lungs burning, Scott watched birds go about their afternoon in the exact thin air that had nearly taken him out. This week he sits down with Dr. Chris Witt, evolutionary ...

2 Heinä 34min

Okay, but does easy living make birds dumber?

E28. A bird's brain is the most expensive thing it owns, and evolution doesn't hand one out for free. Dr. Carlos Botero, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent a decade tr...

25 Kesä 32min