Sparrow species found to use medicine to protect their young

Dr Feeney said they conducted experiments to see whether the birds were targeting the wormwood leaves specifically or picking them up randomly.

“We found that the birds include it in their nest and will seek it out based on the smell of the plant, and they’ll adjust the amount of wormwood in their nest,” he said.

“When they have wormwood in their nests, their chicks get less parasites and tend to be larger and healthier overall.”

The researchers experimented with adding or removing wormwood from the birds’ nests and found that if removed, the birds would add more, and if added, the birds would throw out some until they had an “ideal” amount.

In many…