Bird’s Devotion to Parents

Devotion of parents. While caring for their young, birds show a most remarkable devotion, sel­dom deserting their nest, regardless of what may happen. They show reckless courage in trying to protect their young from intruders, sometimes even striking a person with their bills.

Care after leaving the nest.

After the young leave the nest. they must be taught many lessons before they are able to care for themselves. One of the first lessons learned is how to fly. The parents will often hold the food in front of the young and fly from branch to branch to induce the young to do the same. The young must also be taught where to find their own food and how to pick it up. When the young first leave the nest, they do not even know how to pick up an insect.

If food is brought and placed beside them, they stand with heads thrown back and mouths wide open, expecting to be fed as they always have been while in the nest, and make no attempt to pick up the food. The parents teach the young by doing the action over and over again before them, and then leaving the young be­side the food for a long time. And besides these there are many other lessons the young birds must learn.

This period of schooling is very brief, probably only a few weeks, and in the case of birds that rear two broods, the first brood is hardly properly taught before the second brood is started.

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