How Hungry is my Baby Bird?

Baby birds can be demanding, constantly asking their parents for food. With all this calling for some grub things can get pretty noisy, luckily parents can tell the difference between the calls of chicks so that they know they are feeding their own babies. New research by German and Swiss ornithologists (people that study birds)  have now shown that it’s not just about knowing who your kids are, it’s also about hearing how hungry they are.

hungry baby birds

By studying golden-backed weaver birds in Kenya researchers have discovered that the chicks change their calls the hungrier they get. As the chick’s stomach rumbles they change their tune, with each baby bird calling out their own unique ‘feed me’ song. It’s up to the parents to learn these different calls as their babies bust out the music notes to tell mom and dad just how hungry they are.

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