University of Illinois (UI) researchers didn’t go looking for birds committing parental infanticide. They had been monitoring dickcissel nests as part of a larger ongoing study examining the effects of fire, grazing, and herbicide application on the grassland-dwelling species. The team trained high-definition video cameras on the nests to monitor diet and feeding behavior.

Baby birds go missing from their nests all the time. Usually, the disappearances are chalked up to predation, but in extremely rare cases, parents have been observed removing their own chicks from their nests. The new study documents the mysterious and fatal behavior in dickcissels for the first time.

Because it was a one-time observation and not the goal of the original study, the researchers can’t prove their hypotheses. But the discovery leaves open the possibility that parental infanticide is happening more often than previously thought.

NIFA supports this research through the Hatch Act Program.

Read the full article at the University of Illinois News.

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