Editing Bird (section)

====Brood parasites====
{{Main|Brood parasite}}
[[File:Reed warbler cuckoo.jpg|thumb|upright|right|alt=Small brown bird places an insect in the bill of much larger grey bird in nest|[[Reed warbler]] raising a [[common cuckoo]], a [[brood parasite]]]]
[[Brood parasitism]], in which an egg-layer leaves her eggs with another individual's brood, is more common among birds than any other type of organism.<ref name="brood">{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=N. |year=2000 |title=Cuckoos, Cowbirds and other Cheats |publisher=[[T. & A. D. Poyser]] |location=London |isbn=0-85661-135-2}}</ref> After a parasitic bird lays her eggs in another bird's nest, they are often accepted and raised by the host at the expense of the host's own brood. Brood parasites may be either ''obligate brood parasites'', which must lay their eggs in the nests of other species because they are incapable of raising their own young, or ''non-obligate brood parasites'', which sometimes lay eggs in the nests of [[conspecific]]s to increase their reproductive output even though they could have raised their own young.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1093/beheco/8.2.153 |last1=Sorenson |first1=M. |year=1997 |title=Effects of intra- and interspecific brood parasitism on a precocial host, the canvasback, ''Aythya valisineria'' |journal=Behavioral Ecology |volume=8 |issue=2| pages=153–161 |doi-access=free}}</ref> One hundred bird species, including [[honeyguide]]s, [[icterid]]s, and [[Black-headed duck|ducks]], are obligate parasites, though the most famous are the [[cuckoo]]s.<ref name="brood"/> Some brood parasites are adapted to hatch before their host's young, which allows them to destroy the host's eggs by pushing them out of the nest or to kill the host's chicks; this ensures that all food brought to the nest will be fed to the parasitic chicks.<ref>{{cite journal| last1=Spottiswoode| first1=C. N.| last2=Colebrook-Robjent| first2=J. F. R.| title=Egg puncturing by the brood parasitic Greater Honeyguide and potential host counteradaptations| journal=Behavioral Ecology| volume=18| pages=792–799| year=2007| doi=10.1093/beheco/arm025| issue=4| doi-access=free| hdl=10.1093/beheco/arm025| hdl-access=free}}</ref>