Why is this bird feeding fish?
鸟儿为什么给鱼儿喂食?
This bird is a long way from its nest.
这只鸟离自己的巢穴还很远。
Filmed in 2010, the video shows a black-headed cardinal feeding seeds to very eager goldfish. According to the video’s description, the bird would fly down as many as six times a day, depositing seeds into the open mouths of the fish.
网上有一段拍摄于2010年的视频，视频中，一只黑头的红衣主教鸟向一群饥饿的金鱼喂食。根据视频的讲述，这只鸟一天会飞来六次，把找到的种子喂到金鱼张开的嘴巴里。
It’s a confusing sight for sure, as you’re expecting the bird to be doing this behavior way up in its nest. So why is it on the shore of a lake, feeding fish?
这是一种令人惊愕的现象，在正常情况下鸟儿会在它的巢穴里做出这种行为。那么，为什么它会飞到湖岸喂鱼呢?
Speaking to National Geographic, Princeton biologist Christina Riehl suggests it could be the bird’s innate desire to mother. "My best guess is that the appearance of the goldfish’s open mouth at the surface of the water is just similar enough in size and shape to the open mouth of a baby bird that it triggers the instinct in the adult bird to provide food to it."
普林斯顿大学的生物学家克莉丝汀﹒瑞尔在接受国家地理杂志采访时表示，这可能是鸟儿天生对做母亲的渴望。“我猜测是金鱼在水面上张开嘴的样子，在大小、形状上与幼鸟张开嘴时差不多，因而触发了成年鸟儿的母爱本能，为金鱼提供了食物。”
It’s an amazing demonstration of how simple stimuli can trigger very hardwired behaviors, even in situations that seem obviously wrong to us, she says.
她说：“这是一个惊人的证据，显示了简单的刺激可以激发动物的固有行为，即使在我们看来明显是错误的。”
It’s not the only instance in recent memory of inter-species feeding, either. In July, a lioness in Tanzania was spotted nursing a leopard cub, an "unprecedented" pairing
这不是近段时间关于物种间喂养唯一的例子。今年7月，在坦桑尼亚发现一只母狮喂养一只猎豹的幼崽，这是一种“前所未有”的配对行为。
