Cuckoo Chick

Eurasian cuckoos are one example of the myriad ways family structures in nature do not conform to the hetero-reproductive ideal of one man + one woman + progeny.

We tend to think and speak of cuckoo parents as either neglectful (the genetic parent) or victimised (the foster parent). It is easy to read tragedy into the situation of the tiny host parents working desperately to feed another’s offspring after their own eggs/chicks have been thrown from the nest. And host species do evolve defences to avoid being used in this way. But we do not know how the individual birds experience foster parenting. We do know they are following and fulfilling the parental instincts they would have followed with their own chicks. It is perfectly possible that they are fulfilled parents. The cuckoo chick may never meet its genetic parent, but there is no reason to assume it would wish to. Either way, this example is a reminder both that families come in all shapes and sizes, and that we can’t derive ethical arguments from nature: what is natural is not necessarily good, and what is good is not necessarily natural. What is unnatural is not necessarily bad, and what is bad is not necessarily unnatural.