Charley Harper
Original artwork done for Ford Times magazine, cover art 1982.
Parenting is even more demanding when the mouths to feed—those gaping gullets grasping for more grubs than your own greedy species—are growing bigger every day. Their real mother laid her eggs for other kinds of birds to care for, then left—a feathered freeloader, one half of the deadbeat duo, Mr. and Mrs. Cowbird. This pair of yellow warblers are clueless foster parents programmed to treat baby cowbirds as if they are their own. Lesson? Family membership confers benefits. Soon the fledgling imposters will be ready to fly off on their own. But while they are still on the nest, the family circle is a bond that can’t be broken.