Satellites
When it comes to love, birds take a satellite approach.
Bobolink males give 100 percent of their hunting efforts
to their first nest and their first mate.
A satellite female may appear, and then another.
Each builds her own nest,
surreptitiously mates with the male.
Each subsists on twenty-five percent of the male’s efforts.
The original nest gets fifty percent.
Later arriving females may receive as little at ten percent of the hunter’s results.
By contrast, some warbler species have satellite males.
A strong singer quickly attracts a mate and egg laying commences.
Satellite males build nests surrounding the strong singer’s territory.
Other females attracted to the strong singers voice nest with satellite males.
Twenty-five to fifty percent of the nestlings in satellite broods
are related to the strong singer at the center of the action.
Birds are not at all like humans.
When it comes to love, birds take a satellite approach.
Bobolink males give 100 percent of their hunting efforts
to their first nest and their first mate.
A satellite female may appear, and then another.
Each builds her own nest,
surreptitiously mates with the male.
Each subsists on twenty-five percent of the male’s efforts.
The original nest gets fifty percent.
Later arriving females may receive as little at ten percent of the hunter’s results.
By contrast, some warbler species have satellite males.
A strong singer quickly attracts a mate and egg laying commences.
Satellite males build nests surrounding the strong singer’s territory.
Other females attracted to the strong singers voice nest with satellite males.
Twenty-five to fifty percent of the nestlings in satellite broods
are related to the strong singer at the center of the action.
Birds are not at all like humans.
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