Sentence Correction

In nests across North America, the host mother tries to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to those of the host, making that task surprisingly difficult.

A) the host mother tries to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to those of the host, making that task surprisingly difficult
B) the host mother tries to identify its own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to that of the host, making it surprisingly difficult
C) host mothers try to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to the host's, making that task surprisingly difficult
D) host mothers try to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to that of the host's, making it surprisingly difficult
E) host mothers try to identify its own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to those of the host's, making that task surprisingly difficult

oa C

I went with E

vipulgoyal wrote:In nests across North America, the host mother tries to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to those of the host, making that task surprisingly difficult.

A) the host mother tries to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to those of the host, making that task surprisingly difficult
B) the host mother tries to identify its own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to that of the host, making it surprisingly difficult
C) host mothers try to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to the host's, making that task surprisingly difficult
D) host mothers try to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to that of the host's, making it surprisingly difficult
E) host mothers try to identify its own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to those of the host's, making that task surprisingly difficult

A: the host mother tries to identify their own eggs
Here, their (plural) does not agree with the host mother (singular).
Eliminate A.

B and D: eggs that look very similar to that of...
Here, that (singular) cannot serve to stand in for eggs (plural).
Eliminate B and D.

E: host mothers try to identify its own eggs
Here, its (singular) does not agree with host mothers (plural).
Eliminate E.

OA: Host mothers try to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but the brown-headed cowbird - a brood parasite that sneaks its eggs into other birds' nests - produces eggs that look very similar to the host's, making that task surprisingly difficult.
Here, the referent for that task is not crystal clear.
The intended referent seems to be to identify their own eggs and weed out the fakes, but there is far too much distance between these two actions and that task, making the sentence hard to follow.

I would ignore this SC.

I went with eliminating D and E in the following way.
similar to that of the host's - That of already makes possessive. Host's is redundant
similar to those of the host's - Those of already makes possessive. Host's is redundant