For some reason, lots of junco nestlings and young fledglings really believe they can fly.
Sorry, little guys. You are definitely wrong about this.
BBAR can totally do this.
No?
Why do I have these photos? Because we try to photograph every nestling and fledgling to get a sense of their age and development. The feathers in their tails, wings, and along the feather tracts on their bellies and backs all grow in quickly at this stage, giving you information about the age (or, if you know the age, the development for its age) of the bird.
So we try to photograph them from the front and the back—and they all try to fly away, and we get these photos.
AYME with her miniature junco tail
Often you can still see the feather growth pretty well though. Notice the variation among these young birds in tail length and how many of their wing feathers are out of their sheaths. As the sheaths of the pinfeathers break away in small fragments they become debris that looks a lot like dandruff.
AMMR: pinfeather dandruff.
AMMR’s tail is just breaking pins, while his wing feathers are about half out of their sheaths.
BBAE
BBAE soaring
BBAE swooping
SYAN
SYAN having second thoughts
UB has almost enough feathers to do this
SAER
SAER is mad
Most of RAYS’ feathers are still in their sheaths
All the better to fly with!! Except… not.
LARS
Go go go!
KROA take-off
BAGL looks like an Archeopteryx
GALK
GALK swerves
GALK re-evaluates this plan
LARR: another Archeopteryx
YRAR: and a third.
YIRA
YALL
YALL again
ERSA
ANNY
SRSA
SEGA
That’s funny. It really is amazing how each new bird grows it’s feathers and eventually flies for real.
It is amazing! Especially when you think about how they start out as these tiny pink larval creatures, and then are flying something like 20 days later. Humans are such slackers in comparison.
I like the feather shot on SYAN.