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:

1. The evolutionary arms race between brood parasites and their hosts, from mimetic eggs to alien-looking chick mouth patterns
2. How the "password hypothesis" explains how brown-headed cowbirds avoid imprinting on the wrong species
3. 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:

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