Brown-headed Cowbird

Brown-headed cowbirds parasitize over 200 host species, making them the most generalist brood parasites known. Unlike cuckoos that specialize on specific hosts, cowbirds succeed through volume - a female may lay 40 eggs per season across many nests. This generalist strategy sacrifices per-egg success for portfolio diversification.

Cowbird evolution provides an unexpected insight: they followed bison herds across prairies, eating insects disturbed by grazing. This nomadic lifestyle made nest-building impractical - birds couldn't stay in one location long enough to raise young. Brood parasitism evolved as a solution to ecological constraint, not as a predatory strategy.

The business parallel illuminates outsourcing as strategy. Companies that must move fast or operate across diverse environments may outsource functions that require sustained local presence. Like cowbirds following bison, fast-moving organizations may find that core activities preclude maintaining certain capabilities internally. Outsourcing parenting (operations, manufacturing, customer service) to specialists becomes strategic necessity.

Cowbirds also demonstrate the 'mafia hypothesis' - females return to parasitized nests and destroy entire clutches if hosts reject cowbird eggs. This retaliation makes acceptance rational for hosts: better to raise a cowbird chick than lose everything. Some business relationships persist through similar dynamics - accepting suboptimal terms beats the consequences of rejection.