My Human Disguise.
As if ashamed of its homely feathers,
The cowbird disowns its young in the nest.
In those it didn’t build it abandons
An egg among the eggs of its betters,
Who raise the cowbird along with the rest.
(The intruder will steal from the small ones.)
Parents who can identify their own,
Catbirds fling the parasites out like stones.
They mew incessantly, then sing countless
Notes per minute — clucks, whines, gurgles, clicks, squawks,
Imitations of other birds but hawks.
Even more than most, the catbird’s restless;
Endlessly curious or vigilant,
It flies — the only time it is silent.
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