#brood parasite

[revretch]

I was out sitting in a field sketching today when a little bird started hanging around me! She started getting closer and closer, until finally she hopped up on my foot, then on my leg, then on my other leg! She must have climbed on me at least four different times! (She also tried to eat my pencil and pooped on my shoe.)

Anyway, I looked her up and it turns out she was a brown-headed cowbird--a type of brood parasite, like a cuckoo! They even have the mafia tactics of cuckoos, laying their eggs in the nests of littler birds and destroying them if their offspring isn't cared for.

I hope she lives a long happy life and terrorizes many little birds to come

[thecreaturecodex]

What's your options on bugbears in Golorian being all serial killers or atleast obsessed with fear? I think that has room for, improvement. Definitely feels weird for them though.

I love it.

It's one of my favorite lore changes between D&D and Pathfinder. It makes bugbears feel less like "goblin, but giant". And Paizo has made it clear that some goblins mutate and just grow to Medium size, so you can have giant goblins if you want 'em.

@monstersdownthepath suggested that bugbears have a demonic taint to them. Despite their CE nature, I'd suggest sahkils instead. Bugbears are the Fear of Marauders, of Banditry, of Murder. Only they're mortal. But I bet a lot of their souls end up in Xilbaba when they die.

I imagine that small groups of bugbears are somewhere between bandit gangs and terrorist cells, roaming around and striking for maximum psychological impact as much as to get material goods. Larger communities would be like Halloweentown, only much less friendly. With running competitions for "most blood drained in a single evening". And adopting more terrible monsters into their numbers as Honorary Bugbears. Life's no fun without a good scare! If the Thing Hiding Under Your Stairs and The Shadow on the Moon At Night really wanted to kill you, and then looted your supplies and took over your village until the well runs dry or next year's crop doesn't plant itself. That's a bugbear clan.

I also love the implication in Ironfang Invasion, through characters like Scarvinious and Scabvistin (great naming convention too, IMO), that some, but not all, bugbears are envious of hobgoblins. They like the idea of civilization, of order and rigidity. And so they enlist. And because of their strength and power, they can succeed. If they "beat the bear" out, in Scabvistin's words.

So if you want to give bugbears another hook, here's my alternate, but not necessarily incompatible take. They're brood parasites. Because what's scarier than a baby that's not yours taking over your life?

We know that in Pathfinder canon, goblins and hobgoblins are both communal breeders (thanks to nursery locations in both Rise of the Runelords and Jade Regent). A mother bugbear sneaks into a goblin creche and leaves her baby behind, after killing one of the young and either eating it themselves or feeding it to Junior. The somewhat addlepated and mutation-prone goblins won't notice or mind a slightly hairier infant, right? And then the bugbear baby takes more than its fair share of resources, maybe knocks off a few of the other kids, and then either leaves the goblin colony at a young age in order to find more bugbears, or stays and muscles his way into a leadership position.

Doing the same to a hobgoblin community is riskier. The hobgoblins are much more in tune and observant. But in this case, it becomes more of a mutualistic relationship that could tip into parasitism on either end. Maybe the bugbear can get along in the hobgoblin village by learning discipline, or be content with the role of scavenger or brute. Or the bugbear could try to take over, if the hobgoblins are weak. And if the bugbear doesn't have the resources to survive and thrive, the hobgoblins send them off on a suicide mission.

And even though they only rely on other goblinoids for raising their young...most of the time, there are rumors that they do this to other peoples. Even if it happens once in a hundred years, everyone will know the story of how the Munson boy got very hairy and very big very quickly, and then slaughtered and spit-roasted the family dog when he was only 4? That kind of fear keeps the bugbears powerful. And makes the bugbears very happy.

[callme-cursed]

Hey you know what let's add some horror to the tag I'm bored. A lot of people have mentioned Marines mistaking normal children for marinelings. But what if the opposite is also in play.

You foster a child, such a bright young boy. His case worker says he's five even as he is already at your waist. Everyone tells you that's normal that growing quickly was great given his previous home. You do your best to provide but it never seems enough. He's own been here a month but he's already grown several inches. There is a hunger behind his eyes you worry about.

[infection-zone]

Small and helpless, these monsters survive via the releasing of pheromones that mimic that of a newborn. With this they rely on tricking monsters into taking on a parental role to care for them for life. When taken back to the nest of the other, they will normally try their best to remain in sole control of it. They will kill the young or eggs of its adoptive parents in these cases. However some observations of them coexisting with the previous nest inhabitants have been noticed -Jim

[seriema]

cuckoos used to parasite shrike nests... obsessed with the concept of that fucked up bird family

[great-and-small]

Me: *plays specific song repeatedly for my unborn child in the womb*

Person: Awww that’s lovely, music is so important to a developing baby 😊

Me: haha yeah definitely that’s why I’m doing it totally not so I can use pre-learned acoustic call-and-response as a form of protection against brood parasitism by cuckoo birds 👀

[hoofpeet]

Okay after some consideration I think togekiss is a good pokemon to parasitize !! Reasons being

-they're fairly rare, which leads me to believe they have small broods that wouldn't provide much competition

-Togekiss are also very friendly and probably wouldn't reject a parasitic murkrow even if they did notice

-Obvious fairy type tie-in

The only initial drawback I saw was that the togetic line has 3 evolutionary stages while murkrows only have 2; but upon further consideration that might actually trick parent togekiss into thinking the murkrow is just a runt that needs to be fed more to grow stronger? So uhm . brood parasite murkrow/honchrow variant because I think brood parasitism is cool !!

[rubydart]

I had a big need for a fandom butterfly/moth display. Updated with an ID: Art drawn to look like a Fictional Moth/Butterfly display case based on 4 characters from The Magnus Archives on a 8.5x11" print. Big bug center top is labeled as "J. Sims": big green Luna Moth with multiple prominent eyes a bit like an Emperor Moth's markings, and holes in the wings that mimic the holes in a cassette tape. There's an eye on the mid of its body. The markings are more fantastical than the other bugs.

Labeled "M. Blackwood": Silver Clouded moth, smaller, to the right of J. Sims, with a cloudy looking pattern in greys on the wings, and two small dots.

Labeled "N. Sasha": Center-left. A blue butterfly but with markings that look like eyes and possibly claws extending across the top pair of wings. The wings are lined with black and white markings that resemble piano-keys. The lower pair of wings have golden markings that is supposed to resemble calliope pipes.

Labeled "Tim": Takes up the lower right side. A Mourning Cloak butterfly but with orange markings inside the wings that resemble flames. Mainly red wings lined with black then yellow edges, with blue spots across the black.

They are on a board with a spider web stretched across underneath them. The black tape of a cassette tape ribbons around the board in loose loops.

[elliottnotyet]

Day 12 of Marchirp: brood parasites. I drew a cow bird

[Image ID: black bird with a brown head and a thick beak standing on a branch. End ID]

[sheisalivingchild]

the songbird and snake imagery in tbosas is really incredibly versatile. Coryo is bird coded in a few ways, he's a jabberjay for instance - parroting what he's fed for the benefit of the Capitol - in relation to the rebellious district mockingjay, but he's also a brood parasite like a cowbird or cuckoo for the way he kicks Sejanus out of the nest and replaces him as the Plinth heir

[abyssalzones]

i can't speak for everyone but i personally LOVE overly ambitious fan content that relies heavily on personal experience. it improves the quality imo, enhances the experience if you will. so much fan content is just retreading what the source material already did and it's like girl if i wanted to see that i would just re-consume the source material. fan content SHOULD be personal imo. it should have heart and do things the source material never would or could. so keep it up 👍 ok thats all

that IS refreshing to hear actually you make a good point. I have a tendency to get self conscious about putting anything I care about into the world, so hearing this means a lot and definitely inspires me to keep going ^_^ thanks for the kind words !!

[jettkuso]

Soundwave, but he turns into a single wireless earbud and hides as part of your set, tossing out one of your AirPods, like a bird hiding its egg in another bird’s nest.

[froody]

MY 100 BABY CHALLENGE SIM IS UP TO 45 BABIES!!!!

[gibberishquestion]

cowbirds exacting revenge on host birds for rejecting their eggs is so funny to me actually. dont you fucking DARE to refuse to raise my stupid shitty baby that i’m also refusing to raise

[soupy-sez]

Cardinal Feeds Goldfish

[seriema]

worlds hardest working parent