Teddy Edward: Baby Birds

It's been so wintry over the last few months and even though we are now officially into Spring it still feels like Winter.
So I thought I would turn the clock forward a couple of months to late Spring/early Summer and share a few photos (and observations) of some baby birds which will hopefully cheer us all up.
I thought I'd start with a baby bird that most people get a chance to witness even if they are not keen bird watchers...................... that is ducklings, in particular Mallard duckings.

Best follow mum

The water looks cold and deep!!

Everybody present and correct

Some of these young waterfowl can be born quite a bit away from the water, Mallards for example have been known to nest in trees a few hundred yards from the nearest water. So Mallard ducklings can spend their early days on dry land before heading to the safety of the water.
This is not the case for all waterfowl............Coots for example nest very near to the water's edge and even sometimes on small rafts of vegetation. Their young (I'll call them cootlings) have to be able to take to the water within a day or two of being born, hence why the look like little blobs of fluff, making them very buoyant:

Coot and cootlings

Being fluffy might help them float but it makes them very difficult to photograph, especially using autofocus.
Another water-borne youngster you may be familiar with has in the past been described as ugly (no we are not talking Herons, in which case I would not argue) I'm talking about the ugly duckling itself..........the cygnet. Here is a pretty big cygnet which is starting to show all the poise and grace of an adult but still retains the grey feathers and dark coloured beak of a juvenile:

Mute Swan Cygnet on Union Canal

This photo was taken in the Winter on a frozen canal, so not exactly an early summer youngster, which gives you an idea how long some of these larger birds take to reach maturity.
Moving on to dry land and concentrating on smaller birds which have a relatively short lifespan, and the chicks have to grow up fast.
We'll start with everyone's favourite the unmistakably cute Blue Tit. Here is a recently fledged (i.e. left the nest) youngster crying out to be fed:

Feed me!!

You can clearly see its bright orange 'gape' which acts as a target for the parents when stuffing caterpillars in their beaks in the dark of the nest hole (or box). They also pull back their wings and flutter them in a pitiful way and it seems that this begging works as the parent came along with a mouthful of insects for the hungry chick:

Yum Yum!!

Blue Tit chicks are much more lemony and greyer than the adults, who are by this time looking very bedraggled having to constantly find food to feed their hungry brood which could be as much as a dozen chicks.
Here is another youngster, see if you can guess what bird it is:

Who Am I??

I am sure you all knew it was another garden favourite.............
...........a juvenile Robin. It will be another few months before it gets its distinctive red breast but the shape of the bird, its beak and the way it hops about lets you know it is definitely a Robin.
I have had people saying to me "I saw a female Robin" and when I asked how they knew it was a female they said "it didn't have a red breast". Chances are it was most likely a juvenile, as you all know adult female Robins look just like their male counterparts.
Here are another couple of fledglings which have some of the colouring but not quite full adult plumage:

Young Greenfinch

Young Goldfinch

The young Goldfinch has the bright yellow wing bars but lacks the black head, white nape and red face that makes the adult so distinctive. It is however cute (if you like that sort of thing!)
As you may see from the above photographs and those below young birds are not very wary are are therefore extremely vulnerable:

Young Starling on a bench

Young Sparrows sunbathing

This obviously leaves them exposed to predation.
The most prolific killer of young birds is of course the domestic cat, they are relatively easy pickings for them, especially if they are on the ground. Whether they are on the ground, on roof-tops or on exposed branches of a tree there is another predator which times the birth of their young to match the abundance of young blue tits, goldfinch, sparrow, etc..................the aptly named Sparrowhawk:

Sparrowhawk

This one was visiting my neighbour's garden looking for some nice tit-bits to eat.
I've also had them in my garden, going by the evidence I found.............a pile of feathers an a neatly removed greenfinch beak!
So small baby birds beware!!
Some larger baby birds may well be save from Sparrowhawks, but they also have to be careful as there are plenty of other predators out there, Peregrine Falcons and Goshawks to name but two.
That is why some birds (in particular sea birds) like to nest in colonies either on high cliffs or islands out at sea. On Inchcolm Island in the Firth of Forth you can see lots of sea birds nest on the island and the surrounding rocks. Birds such as Puffins, Heron Gulls, Guillemots, Cormorants, etc all like to nest in places like this.
Here is a Herring Gull chick I photographed on Inchcolm Island:

Herring Gull Chick

In all honesty it may be a Lesser Black-backed Gull, I can't tell the difference when they are this young. Whether it's a cute chick or not is open to debate.
I'll leave you with one or two pictures of one of my favourite baby birds.
I had the privilege of working for Friends of Kailzie Wildlife in the Scottish Borders not too long ago and had an opportunity to attend the 'ringing' of the Osprey chicks which they monitor using high definition cameras and feature in their wildlife centre. These are wild birds which fly to West Africa every Autumn and return in the Spring to the same nest to lay their eggs.
Just before the young Osprey are about to fledge they are brought down from the nest on top of a very high tree and given lovely ankle bracelets to identify them by. Remember these 'chicks' are only about six weeks old, but have been fed by the parents on a high protein diet of fish, fish and fish. So if you want the kids to grow up nice and strong you know what to feed them.............
I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed the experience: