Final answer:
Option (A), The Cuckoo is the bird known for practicing brood parasitism by laying its eggs in the nests of other birds. This allows the Cuckoo to avoid the costs associated with incubation and chick rearing.
Step-by-step explanation:
The best-known bird practitioner of brood parasitism that lays its eggs in other birds' empty nests is the Cuckoo. Brood parasitism is a behavior in which a bird will leave her eggs in the nest of another species. The host bird, unwittingly, incubates the parasitic bird's eggs and often raises the chicks as its own. This strategy is unique as it allows the parasitic bird to conserve resources that would otherwise be spent on parental care, such as the defense of territory, nest site, incubation, and the feeding of chicks.
Brood parasitism is quite rare in the animal kingdom but more common among birds, where typically male and female parents jointly participate in the raising of their young. While many birds build intricate nests for their offspring, some species, like the Cuckoo, take advantage of the parental care provided by other bird species. Incubation, or keeping the eggs warm until hatching, is a task that is essential for the development of the embryos inside the eggs, and this is exploited by brood parasites like the Cuckoo.