Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a light-hearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

This is episode 78, and today we're doing an overview of parental care in birds.

How do birds raise their babies?

Parent birds feeding their chicks in a nest is an iconic

image. It's a symbol of the spring and summer seasons and of the annual rejuvenation of nature.

To the casual observer, birds generally come across as caring, attentive parents, similar to the way mammals demonstrate

good parenting behavior. We humans approve of this sort of thing. It makes us feel all warm and

fuzzy inside. I mean, the behavior of birds and mammals is way better than what amphibians and reptiles do, right? Those cold-blooded

critters just crank out a bunch of babies and then leave them to fend for themselves. No parental care to

speak of. Despicable. Okay, yes, I know. Some amphibians and reptiles show parental care.

I was exaggerating a little, for comedic effect.

But to be fair, birds aren't always the paragons of parental love that we might think they are.

They sometimes do pretty messed up things when it comes to raising their offspring. And this highlights the

fact that humans like to project our own cultural values onto animals. If, for example, we see a

pair of adult geese dutifully tending to their adorable fuzzy chicks, we might think,

aw, what a cute little family.

They all love each other.

And when we hear about a female blue-footed booby that did nothing and just sat there

indifferently while the older of her two chicks murdered its younger sibling, well, in that case, we'd probably think that booby is a bad

...