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Chunky C. roosts alone in a willow thicket. Her metabolic rate increases. Overnight, a new egg has moved down her oviduct. By dawn, she is “in full”—the egg occupies the shell gland, putting pressure on her cloaca.

Our tour begins not in a nest, but on a vantage point. A female cowbird is often described as "chunky" or stocky—resembling a plump, dark sparrow with a heavy bill. She sits motionless in a bush, watching.

Take the . The mother cowbird monitors the nests of smaller songbirds. Once she slips her egg in, the cowbird chick usually hatches earlier and grows much faster than its nestmates. This "chunky" intruder uses its size to:

Then, the Chunky Parasite goes to work. It consumes the foster siblings one by one. Not to kill them—to sample them. It is trying to find the perfect caloric density.

But here is the horror: She doesn't leave to find food. She leaves to digest .

: Its outer shell hardens into a metallic, chunky crust that reflects the surrounding starlight.

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