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Our Baby Birds

Our article featuring baby birds (Little Junior - the spitting image of Mom or Dad!) starts where they start - with the egg.

Here a Mute Swan is turning its eggs before settling down again. 4-8 light gray eggs are laid and incubated for over a month, with both parents taking turns. The nest is built on the shore or on an island. It's made of plant materials and lined with down feathers.

The "Ugly Duckling" from the fairy tales gradually developed into the most beautiful of all the birds in the pond. Although related, swans are not classified as either ducks nor geese, but are in a separate sub-family of their own: Cygninae, and young swans are called cygnets.

Mute Swans won't develop their orange bills and white
plumage until their second year.

We are all know Canada Geese. They make a very comfortable nest on the ground - usually hidden as much as possible or on a small island in the river. Once the eggs hatch the young ones are soon up and running as it's not a good idea to stay in the ground nest longer than necessary! Canada Geese are very protective of their offspring and be very vary of predators.

Then of course, like all children, they have the run of the place!

In sharp contrast to the ground nesting birds is the Osprey which likes to build a huge nest in unusual, but exposed spots such as high on man-made platforms or on the tops of telephone poles or even on the spans of bridges.

One of the strangest nests belongs to the tiny Bushtit. It resembles a long, woven sock with the entrance hole on the side near the top.

Thanks to bony feet and a thick coat of feathers, the Cactus Wren is able to perch on cacti without being impaled. Here it finds a protected spot to build a football-sized nest.

Youngsters rarely look like their parents. The young bald eagle on the left will not
develop its white plumage until it's 3 or 4 years old.

The young White-crowned Sparrow (right) is another bird which doesn't resemble either of its parents at first, but in fact appears to be more like another sparrow completely.

	You would almost expect the light brown stripes of the young White-crowned Sparrow to gradually develop into the black and yellow stripes of the Golden-crowned Sparrow (left).

But in reality those head feathers will gradually change and it will develop into the striking adult on the right.

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