system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 -- If baby birds imprint on any other species they're around as hatchlings, the way they do in those baby chick experiments we did in high school, how do cowbirds recognize each other as mates when the time comes? NO cowbird is raised to know it's a cowbird, so..?
gpt
Brood parasites like cuckoos and cowbirds don’t think they’re the species that raised them - they instinctively harass their nestmates and even their “parent” until it’s time to leave.

Once they mature, they do the same mating song and dance that all songbirds do.  Nobody ever teaches a cardinal what a cardinal’s mating song sounds like or what a nest looks like, it’s built in behavior.  The same is true for lazy brood parasite birds.