- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,508
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
It’s not such a hard-knock life for the orphaned killdeer who hatched after its parents and three siblings had already flown the coop over the long weekend.
The baby bird was taken to the Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Care, where workers are trying to surround it with things that will help it feel confident enough to soon live on its own in the wild.
“The mirror and feather duster are there to make him feel safe and comfortable,” said Mae Goguen, executive director at the centre.
Killdeer birds are precocial birds, which means that they are able to feed themselves pretty much immediately. (As opposed to “altricial” birds, which when they are born are, like humans, fairly useless at procuring their own food.)
By Sunday morning, this instinct for feeding oneself had kicked in for the three hatched killdeer, which had scattered towards the Ottawa River with the mother and father killdeer.
Killdeer babies usually spend about a month near their parents while they are fledging (growing feathers for flight, in non-ornithological terms).
Goguen said she doesn’t know when the fourth bird will be released into the wild. Killdeers usually hang around with their parents, learning to forage for bugs for a few weeks, but without them, the centre will need to feed it and do a bit of surrogate mothering until the bird is strong enough to be released.
Goguen also said that they haven’t determined whether the fourth bird is a male or a female.
查看原文...
The baby bird was taken to the Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Care, where workers are trying to surround it with things that will help it feel confident enough to soon live on its own in the wild.
“The mirror and feather duster are there to make him feel safe and comfortable,” said Mae Goguen, executive director at the centre.
Killdeer birds are precocial birds, which means that they are able to feed themselves pretty much immediately. (As opposed to “altricial” birds, which when they are born are, like humans, fairly useless at procuring their own food.)
By Sunday morning, this instinct for feeding oneself had kicked in for the three hatched killdeer, which had scattered towards the Ottawa River with the mother and father killdeer.
Killdeer babies usually spend about a month near their parents while they are fledging (growing feathers for flight, in non-ornithological terms).
Goguen said she doesn’t know when the fourth bird will be released into the wild. Killdeers usually hang around with their parents, learning to forage for bugs for a few weeks, but without them, the centre will need to feed it and do a bit of surrogate mothering until the bird is strong enough to be released.
Goguen also said that they haven’t determined whether the fourth bird is a male or a female.
查看原文...
