How birds feed babies

How Do Mother Birds Feed Their Babies? Birds Advice Guide

Mother birds always love their babies unconditionally. They spend a lot of time to take care of their babies and keep them safe as much as possible. Also, they don’t discriminate to their babies in terms of feeding them.

Then there is a question among bird lovers. How do mother birds feed their babies? The answer is that most mother birds eat food and then regurgitate it for the babies. They often feed their babies insects so that they can get more protein and grow healthy.

And that’s why we will provide you some necessary information so that you will be able to know how mother birds feed their babies. This writing is also our loving dedication to our beautiful feathered friends.

Handy Hint: To read more about birds food, visit our other article about What To Feed A Baby Bird Without Feathers? [here..], What Birds Eat Black Oil Sunflower Seeds? [here] and How To Feed Wild Birds? [here. .]

How Do Mother Birds Feed Their Babies?

Baby birds always depend on their parents to eat food. In this case, a mother bird usually digests the food and then puts that food into the babies’ mouth. The babies always open their mouth wide and screech for the food when they are hungry.

However, the feeding method may be different, depending on the species. But every time the baby bird, which screeches louder, usually gets more food than others.

If the baby bird gapes its mouth strongly, then the parent can feed it easily, and the baby will be able to swallow much larger items.

How Do Mother Birds Ensure Which One Needs More Food?

Sometimes each baby bird doesn’t get an equal amount of food. Perhaps it may be sick or is unable to show the parent that it needs food.

In most cases, the other siblings are bigger and stronger. They can shove their other nestmates to get the food.

You may find various species of birds that have a variety of behaviors and sibling competition. So, it is tough to be sure entirely about birds.

Indeed, the mother bird has enough memory to know which one has immediately got food or even, which has not got the food for a while.

Besides, the one which is hungrier screech louder, and the mother usually put the food into the loudest screecher’s mouth.

Again, mother birds observe their babies well. The one which is swallowing silently, putting the food in the gullet, doesn’t get food in that particular time.

Most Mother Birds Provide Protein-Laden Food

Every mother bird usually feeds their babies many different things depending on their species.

Some perching birds like sparrows and finches eat seeds, nuts, and berries. But they feed their young babies insects because young birds need more protein than are found in the adult’s diet.

Songbirds often feed their babies almost 4 to 12 times an hour. They mostly provide the baby birds protein-laden insects and worms to make sure that they will be healthy.

Some Mother Birds Changes Food Habit

Some parent birds that usually eat seeds, such as finches, cardinals, and sparrows, switch to insects during the breeding season.

Generally, the mothers eat the smaller insects themselves and take the larger ones back to the nest for the babies. So, they can carry more food to their ever-hungry offsprings.

Before feeding the babies, the parents hit the insect against the tree-branch or the ground. They kill the insect and soften the hard shell.

Sometimes, the parents chew the insect, and then break up the exoskeleton to make it edible for the baby birds.

Some Mother Birds Feed Substantial Milk to Their Babies

Some birds produce a substance similar to mammal milk. Pigeons are the best-known producers of crop milk, and both sexes produce it.

Crop milk produced by sloughing of special cells in the crop is very nutritious. Even pigeon milk has more fat and protein than that of cow or human.

For the first few days after hatching, crop milk is the only food that the mother bird provides to the baby birds.

Both parents feed crop milk for a couple of weeks. As the babies get older, it gets seeds with the milk. When they are gradually getting older, they get more seed rather than less milk.

Some Mother Birds Feed Their Babies Differently

Some parents, such as pigeons and doves, feed their babies by using different styles and techniques. They usually squeak and tap their beak against the baby birds’ beak to feed the food. The babies stick their beak down the parent’s throat and suck up to food of the crop.

Most of the songbirds do not have an actual crop, which is essentially a sack capable of holding a large amount of food. The baby birds which don’t have a crop can only hold a small amount of food at a time. They must be fed almost every 20 minutes from sunrise to sunset.

On the other hand, pigeons and doves can hold a large amount of food, which passes slowly through the digestive system. Even the youngest baby pigeon or dove can be fed no more than every couple of hours.

Some Mother Birds Feed Their Babies at Night

Most birds sleep and rest at night. But, some birds specialize at the nocturnal activities. Nocturnal birds are in the minority, but there are plenty of genus and species of nocturnal birds.

For example, most owls hunt at night and are inactive during the day. Also, nighthawks kill insects in flight at night.

Besides, some swifts kill airborne insects at night. Bitterns and night herons are nocturnal. But most night herons are not.

Final Words

Hopefully, you are now well-known of the term “How do mother birds feed their babies?” As the baby birds entirely depend on their mother, they actually eat whatever their mother usually feeds.

When the baby birds are born, they are not able to eat food by themselves, so their mother, sometimes father, digests the food to make it safe for them. Then the parent puts the food into the mouths of its babies.

However, some birds have multiple eggs, but the only one who is the strongest and gets more food will survive each brood. Then, the particular bird will be the example of ‘survival of the fittest.’

How Do Mother Birds Feed Their Babies? [Comprehensive Guide]

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Do you ever wonder how do mother birds feed their babies? When you think about how a mother bird feeds her babies, you might picture her sitting on a nest and feeding them little worms.

But there’s more to it than that! In this blog post, we’ll explore the different ways that mother birds feed their young, from carrying food in their beaks to giving them regurgitated meals.

So read on to learn more about how baby birds eat!

Table of Contents

How Do Birds Feed Their Young?

One of the most fascinating things about birds is how they care for their young. Most birds feed their chicks by regurgitating food [1] that they have previously swallowed.

The process begins when the adult bird swallows food and stores it in an enlargement of the esophagus known as the crop.

When it is time to feed the chicks, the crop muscles contract and push the food back up into the mouth. The bird then tilts its head back and transfers the food directly into the chick’s mouth.

This process allows chicks to get the nutrients they need without having to search for food on their own. In addition, it helps to bond parent and child, as they share a meal together.

As anyone who has ever tried to feed a baby knows, getting them to eat can be a challenge. It’s a good thing that birds have found such an efficient way to care for their young.

Also Read: What Birds Eat Black Oil Sunflower Seeds?

However, the method of feeding the birds varies from species to species. One thing in common is that hungry children open their mouths wide and scream.

Moreover, when a baby bird gets more food and another bird gets less food, the baby that gets less food starts screaming more than before.

The wider the baby bird’s mouth, the more convenient it will be for the mother bird to feed. In this way, the mother bird can feed a large variety of food to the babies.

How Does the Mother Bird Ensure all the Babies Get Enough Food?

Ensuring that all chicks get enough food can be a real challenge for mother birds. After all, they can’t very well stand in line and take turns at the feeding station.

Instead, they have to find other ways to ensure that each chick gets its fair share. One common strategy is for the mother bird to divide her food into smaller pieces and feed each chick one piece at a time.

This way, each chick gets an equal amount of food and no one is left out. Another approach is for the mother bird to feed the largest chicks first and then follow up with the smaller ones.

This ensures that everyone gets some food, even if it’s not an equal amount. Either way, it’s clear that mother birds go to great lengths to make sure their chicks are well-fed.

Moreover, the louder the chick cries, the more the mother thinks the bird needs more food. Then the mother bird feeds the young one.

CHECK: How Long for Bird Eggs to Hatch?

What Types of Food Do Mother Birds Feed their Babies?

All mother birds need to feed their babies, but the type of food they give them can vary depending on the species.

Some common examples of baby bird food include insects, worms, and small pieces of fruit or berries. While these may not sound appetizing to us, they are perfect for growing baby birds.

Insects are a good source of protein, which helps them to grow strong muscles and feathers. Worms are packed with nutrients that help keep baby birds healthy.

And fruit or berries provide them with the energy they need to fly and explore their world. So the next time you see a mother bird feeding her babies, take a moment to appreciate the variety of food she is able to provide.

When Do Baby Birds Stop Being Fed by Mom?

The answer varies depending on the species of bird, but most young birds will begin to explore outside the nest and eat on their own between 4 and 6 weeks of age.

During this time, they will still beg for food from their parents, but they will also start to take small bites of solid food.

As they learn to fly and hunt, they will gradually become more independent, until they are finally able to fend for themselves entirely.

So the next time you see a baby bird at your birdfeeder, don’t be surprised if its mother is not far away.

What Are Some of the Other Ways Birds Feed Their Babies?

Birds are known for their unique parenting skills. They have many different ways of feeding their babies, and it’s important to know what they do so you don’t interfere with them.

Birds have a variety of foods they eat, including insects, seeds, nectar, and fruits. Some birds even eat meat! Birds also have different kinds of mouths depending on what kinds of food they like to eat.

For example, hummingbirds have long beaks for eating nectar from flowers, while hawks have sharp beaks for tearing apart their prey.

Here are some other ways birds feed their babies:

Mothers will often regurgitate food for their babies. This means that they vomit up the food they ate earlier so that the baby can eat it again later.

Vomiting is a very normal process for humans and animals alike. It helps us get rid of things we shouldn’t digest such as bacteria or poisons and allows our bodies to re-use nutrients later on!

Some birds will also provide insects and worms for their chicks to eat directly from their own mouths! The parents will catch these bugs themselves or even give them to their babies as gifts!

Milk Sacs: Many birds have milk sacs that they use to feed their young after they hatch from eggs. They produce milk in these sacs so that when they hatch out of the egg, there’s already milk waiting for them!

Are There Mother Birds that Feed Young One’s Milk?

The answer is yes! There are a few mother birds that will actually produce milk for their chicks. The most well-known example is probably the pigeons, who have a special crop that produces milk for their young [2].

However, doves and some other species of birds also have this ability. The milk produced by these birds is very similar to mammal milk and is full of nutrients that help the chicks grow strong and healthy.

So next time you see a mother bird feeding her chicks, you can be sure that she’s giving them the best possible nourishment.

Have a look at this video.

Some Birds Feed Their Young at Night

Most species of birds rest and sleep at night. However, there are a few species that rest during the day and collect food at night.

Nocturnal birds [3] include owls and bats. They hunt at night and sleep during the day. Insects are one of their food, so they hunt insects at night.

Like other birds, they prey on insects, chew, soften and feed their young. In this way, the child can eat the food well.

Conclusion

So, there you have it! That’s how mother birds feed their babies. It can be a lot of work for them, but it is definitely worth it to see their little ones grow up and thrive.

Have you ever seen this process firsthand? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!

Resources

1. Researchers Find Out How Pigeons Make the “Milk” They Barf Into the Mouths of Their Young. Discover Magazine. Accessed June 2, 2022. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/researchers-find-out-how-pigeons-make-the-milk-they-barf-into-the-mouths-of-their-young
2. Malm K, Jensen P. Regurgitation as a weaning strategy — a selective review on an old subject in a new light. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 1993;36(1):47-64. doi:10.1016/0168-1591(93)90098-A
3. Yahya MS, Puan CL, Azhar B, Atikah SN, Ghazali A. Nocturnal bird composition in relation to habitat heterogeneity in small scale oil palm agriculture in Malaysia. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 2016;233:140-146. doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.09.003

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Birds feeding chicks

Birds skillfully catch big succulent insects in order to feed their cubs. This compilation captures caring parents feeding their little chicks. The photos are very touching and beautiful. Just imagine how much work this garden warbler in the photo below needs to feed 5 hungry mouths :)

And this robin is easier, she has only one chick, the rest apparently fell out of the nest, as often happens. She has already managed to find a great treat for him in the form of a fat caterpillar

Another caring mother who caught an insect similar to a cricket for her chicks

And this bird caught a worm and decided to feed all her cubs with it. Everyone got a piece of the delicacy

The most beautiful picture of a sunbird feeding offspring on the fly

Already quite an adult chick demands food from its mother :)

And this photo looks like a painting by some famous artist, the feeding process turned out to be very picturesque

And these baby swallows look not only hungry, but also aggressive - perhaps the parents hunted too long . ..

A mother flamingo takes special care of her chick, checking to see if food has gotten into her pet's beak. Reminds me of spoon-feeding :)

This heron has almost nursed her offspring, very soon they will go on their first flight

This bird looks like a hummingbird, but in fact it is a hook-billed thymelia and another skillful shot of feeding on the fly. Everything happens in a fraction of a second, and the photographer managed to capture this moment.0003
And here's a funny photo I decided to leave to complete the selection - a warbler feeds a chick, which has long outgrown the size of its parent's nest. In fact, this is a cuckoo chick that just threw it into the nest of a strange bird

December 27, 2011 | Categories: Nature, Photo, Other

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How birds take care of their chicks - Notes of a Naturalist

The Animal Friend book series, 1909

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Even an empty bird's nest, half hidden among tree branches or on the ground, in the grass under a bush, is a very attractive picture. But it is even nicer when colorful eggs lie in the cozy recess of the nest or small chicks sit, opening their noses wide to grab the food brought by their parents. I do not know of almost a single picture from the life of animals that would speak to us so convincingly and clearly about the love of parents for children. nine0004

How defenseless, how helpless is the little creature in most cases when it finally breaks through the calcareous shell that constrains it! Without the help of the parents who gave it life, it would soon die in the most miserable way. And how old people take care of their chicks! The thought of children fills their whole soul, starting from the moment when the first egg appears in a small airy cradle, and up to the moment when the chicks separate from their parents. All their thoughts and actions are aimed at bringing safety and protection to their helpless cubs, in order to feed hungry mouths, and later, when the chicks grow up, train them so that they can exist independently in the world and would not die in the harsh worldly storms, who are waiting for them. nine0004

Here is a little miller warbler, the smallest of our warblers, has built a nest in a low currant bush. We carefully part the branches of the bush: the warbler sits on the edge of the nest, holding food in its beak. We prevented her: she was just about to feed her cubs, which, with a squeak, stretch their ugly noses towards her. With its beautiful, intelligent eyes, a pretty bird gazes intently at a stranger who has invaded her possessions. The chicks also fell silent and drew back their outstretched necks. Nothing stirs; only the caterpillar is spinning, trying to escape from the bird's beak. But here we made a movement - and immediately broke the charm with this. Warbler falls from her place to the ground at our feet and, as if with broken limbs, helplessly jumps on the ground, dragging now her wing, now her leg. Isn't she trying to divert our attention from the nest and draw it to herself, to a sick creature with broken wings? An inexperienced person tries to follow a bird jumping on the ground, which tries to take him as far as possible from her chicks, and only then will she suddenly rise from the ground and disappear into a dense bush. nine0004

And with what fearful cry the lapwings fly around us when we approach their nests! They fly very close to the enemy, they even pretend that they are going to attack him, as birds of prey do, so that a timid person positively rejoices when he manages to move away from the place where he was pursued from all sides by lapwings circling around him. with plaintive cries, and the lapwings only wanted him to leave: they hurriedly return to their nest, loudly rejoicing that they managed to avert a terrible danger from their children. Parental love makes them completely forget about the danger: courageous birds sometimes approach us so much that it seems that you can kill them with a stick. They also try to drive dogs away from their nests by attacking them. Often, lapwings, which are almost no larger than a domestic pigeon, even dare to make real attacks on dogs. More than once they have seen how they, running on the ground with outstretched wings in front of the dogs and jumping up, inflicted such blows with their beak on the head near the eyes that they put them to flight. If, on the other hand, a separate lapwing, sitting on eggs, notices our approach only when we are already in front of him, then he begins to hobble around our feet back and forth, just as the whitethroat and rattle warbler do to distract our attention from the eggs to himself, seemingly such a helpless creature. nine0004

Of course, it is hard to believe that a bird can reason in such a way that it deliberately uses this cunning, which would do as much credit to its mind as to its love for children. Therefore, perhaps, those who say that fear for children deprives the bird of reason, paralyzes its muscles, are right, so that the bird acts unconsciously. But why, then, does the bird noticeably try to move away from the nest?

One day, walking along the bank of a pond, I approached a place where a small company of seagulls was sitting on their eggs in the reeds. With a piercing cry, frightened birds rose into the air and began to circle around me, crying plaintively. At the same time, as it might seem, they also wanted to drive me away by throwing their liquid stools from above, which fell near me; one such projectile hit just on my hat. The same is said about terns. Of course, it may also be that the birds do not do this intentionally, but that this excretion is caused in them only by a feeling of fear. But however much we may belittle the mind of the bird in all the examples just given, one thing is certain, that the amazing behavior of birds during nesting is in any case very favorable for the preservation of their offspring, and that the fear that seizes the birds in this case is due only to tenderness. love for the chicks, overflowing with a small bird's heart. nine0004

It is remarkable that among birds, not only the mother, but also the father devotes himself to the upbringing of the young. For the most part, both the male and the female take part in the construction of the nest. Often the male chooses a place for the nest and drags material for construction there, and the female, the main craftswoman in this matter, weaves and fastens the brought material together. Very often, the male and the female take turns sitting on the eggs, at least the male is ready every minute to help the female take her place if she needs to leave the nest for a short time. nine0004

And look how carefully the bird leaves its nest and returns to it again, how it takes care that the nest also does not catch the eye of any enemy while it is not there. The skylark never rises directly from the nest, but first runs some distance along the ground, hiding behind low grass or grain shoots, until finally it flies up. Returning back, he observes the same precaution, even when the chicks have already left the nest and, whistling softly, call their mother to her, she flies over the very grass not directly to the chicks, but to a place that is not far from them, and then already on the ground imperceptibly runs up to his children. Very many birds behave similarly to this if they have eggs or chicks, for example, water hens and others. nine0004

Many birds, leaving their nest, at least for the shortest time, carefully cover the eggs from above with grass, leaves, and brushwood so that the eggs are not conspicuous.

Some hollow nesters very conscientiously carry away the droppings of chicks away from the nest. If the birds, when cleaning their nursery, simply threw out the sewage from the nest, then these sewage, accumulating near the nest, would often serve as a sure sign for various predators, betraying the presence of the nest. But smart birds do things differently. nine0004

We are standing on the bank of a small pond. Here is a male of an elegant puffy tit, or chickadee, with a moth caterpillar in its beak, slipped into the hollow of a bird cherry tree to its chirping chicks and immediately appears again with a lump of droppings, the size of a pea, covered with a white mucous membrane. He releases it only when he is already flying over the water. Now a female appears with the same caterpillar in her beak; she also slips to her children and flies back from the nest with the same lump. This lump also disappears forever in the water. Young chicks in this respect are similar to those automatic selling devices that throw out some thing when a coin is lowered into the hole in the device. If you put a piece of food in the chick's mouth, then the swallowing movement that he does at the same time immediately causes movement in the back of the abdomen, and you can be almost sure that the short large intestine will immediately push out a lump of droppings, undigested remnants of food swallowed earlier. nine0004

You already know that brood birds remain in the nest only until they are thoroughly dry, and then, without any fuss, run away from it with their mother.

Quite different is the case with chicks. What helpless creatures their chicks are! They know only one thing: to open their noses wide in order to perceive food and drink. The parents feed them a curd-like substance, which is secreted in large quantities in pigeons when they have chicks, in the two lateral projections of their crop. It is a crumbly substance with the smell of rancid oil. It is sometimes called "milk", but in composition it has nothing to do with the milk of mammals, since it does not contain any casein or milk sugar contained in milk. In other birds, such as finches or plantains, the crop serves to soften the seeds in it before giving them to the chicks. This makes the food more digestible. And, for example, the crossbill, if it did not have an enlarged esophagus similar to a goiter, perhaps, could not feed its chicks at all. Klest often starts hatching chicks in winter, when he has only hard seeds of our coniferous trees at his disposal. This is not at all suitable food for small chicks, if the seeds were not first softened in the goiter. However, most granivorous birds, such as sparrows, finches, plantains, feed their chicks at first exclusively with insects, as a more digestible food, and only later move on to heavier food; although on the other hand there are birds such as, for example, linnet, which from the very beginning feed on plant foods. nine0004

When, after a few weeks of attentive care from the parents, the little chicks fledge and their dark eyes begin to boldly look at the world around them, some kind of unrest seizes the small children's society. It becomes crowded in the nest for everyone: one touches his neighbor with his wing, the other even tries to clear his place by force with the help of his legs. Finally, the strongest of the chicks squeezes upward from the tightness. Having made a big leap, he immediately reaches the edge of the nest or even sits already on a neighboring branch, looking around him with fear and at the same time pleased with his first feat, which he succeeded so much, as his parents assure him of this with their body movements and gentle inviting sounds. . nine0004

I have rarely been able to observe the flight of chicks from the nest. But still, I was lucky to see several times how young black redstarts dared to take the first step into the world around them, and once also how the chicks of the middle spotted woodpecker left their cradle; I also saw the first experiences of flight in young swallows. The chicks behaved very differently. One chick turns out to be quite skillful: it, apparently, already quite correctly determines distances, jumps from the first branch to the next, and even dares, encouraged by the voices of its parents, to flutter to a neighboring tree. As a reward for this, he receives a caterpillar. Another rushes swiftly out of the nest and falls, fluttering its wings, to the ground, perhaps into tall grass, from which it only manages to get out with difficulty. Only young swallows showed themselves, all without exception, born flyers from the very beginning; they climbed the wall of the nest, then spread their wings and flew to the edge of the roof, thence to the ridge of the roof, and after a short time many of them made the already safely difficult flight across the street to the roof of the house opposite. Very often it also happens that the chicks leave the nest immediately, being frightened of something, or the parents, bored with the fact that the chicks are too slow, push them over the edge of the nest themselves. nine0004

The well-known German aviologist Liebe beautifully describes how a pair of peregrine falcons taught their children to fly. Two young falcons perched on a horizontal branch of an old pine, looking about them half in curiosity, half in fear, while the old male reenacted before them his magnificent exercises in the art of flying. Did he want to teach the chicks this? Or did you want to inspire courage in them? “But then the female also appeared ... Having made several strokes in the air against the wind, she headed with the help of a skillful turn to the side, into the space behind the pine tree and then, slowly moving her wings, swam past one of the chicks, but so close to him that hit him with a wing and moved him from his place. But the chick firmly clung to the bough and, without releasing it, but only waving its wings in the air, again strengthened itself in its former position. Then the mother repeated the same attempt with another chick. This time she succeeded better: the mother very easily pushed the chick with her wing, I flew far down, describing a flat arc in the air. Now the mother took up the first chick again and pushed it off the branch in the same way as the other. The chick fell down, almost to the very ground, and again returned back to its branch, rising, apparently with difficulty and staggering, into the air against the wind. But the mother did not give him rest and again swam very close to him, without touching him with her wing, as if she wanted to show him how he should behave and how to move his wings. nine0004

After the chicks leave the nest, the parents continue to feed them for some time. Then one can see how, for example, young redstarts, resembling small round balls of feathers, of which only a nose with a yellow border and a blunt tail stick out, sit on the fence of the garden and beg food from their parents with trembling movements, or like little swallows huddled close to each other on the ridge of the roof, they watch how the old swallows hunt for insects, and with their diligent chirping let every swallow flying by know about their desire to get a tasty piece. nine0004

Even the sight of young sparrows sitting in the dust of the street and never ceasingly pestering with their importunate requests not only to their own mother, but to every adult sparrow, can give great pleasure. Fluttering their wings, little sparrows jump after adult sparrows, expressively shouting out their invariable: “give, give!” More than once I have observed how little screamers pestered even finches and buntings and sought from them the satisfaction of their request. And once I even saw young sparrows begging for their food from a crested lark. And the lark had no choice but to get rid of the little beggars, but to give them a few pieces. nine0004

Among the brood birds, too, the parents tenderly care for their children and teach them all the arts that may be useful to them later. First of all, we can point here to chicken birds. And if in chicken birds the father usually does not care at all or cares very little about his children, then, on the other hand, the mother devoted to them tries to make up for the lack of father's love with redoubled solicitude.

On the other hand, among partridges, the male takes care of his children in the same way as the female. Fearfully looking out from which side trouble threatens them, and whether it is possible to avert it, the father runs hither and thither, while the mother, with a short warning cry, gathers the chickens around her, orders them to hide in some secret place and quickly points out to each of them shelters in grass, in grain crops, among bushes, in furrows, ruts, and so on. And when the mother finally decides that all her children are well hidden, she, together with the father, exerts all her strength to frustrate the enemy’s plan or repel the attack ... If the father thinks that the danger has passed, he begins to call the chickens to him; one after another, the chicks answer him, and the loving parents gradually gather the entire scattered company back into one place, and the father brings the children one by one and takes them to the mother, who at that time is looking after those chicks that the father has already brought to her. nine0004

And how tenderly all the swimming birds treat their young! Their chicks know how to swim from the very first day; but many aquatic birds must still learn how to dive, in order to save themselves from dangers under water and look for their food there. For example, a grebe begins training its chicks to dive by taking them under its wings and diving with them until the chicks finally lose all fear of the dark abyss and dare to do the same on their own. If the little fluffy chicks want to take a break from their exercises, they climb onto the soft and warm back of their mother or father, who continue to calmly float on the water with their expensive burden on their backs. nine0004

When, after a while, the chicks learn everything they need to know in life, their connection with their parents is interrupted. The children, carefully guarded until now, now go their own way. And if sometimes some capricious little chick still tries to hold onto its mother's skirt, as, for example, is very often observed among sparrows, then the mother angrily throws it away with its beak. Sometimes brothers and sisters remain together for some time, but this is no longer a strong union, and in the end each of them ceases to care about the others. In addition, in many birds, the parents at this time begin to think about how to start the second hatch of children, and the chicks of migratory birds, as soon as they learn to fly well, are already thinking about the flight.