After the baby birds hatch, they depend on their parents to provide them food, shelter, and protection, until they are capable enough to fly or forage food for themselves. Mother birds do not have any mammary glands and they feed the chicks with their beak.
Now, the question arises, how do the birds feed their babies, so let’s dive deep and get the answers.
How Do Birds Feed Their Babies?
After the bird hatches, the first thing they need is food. The mother bird flies out in search of food and brings back the ones that would be suitable for the chick to eat and digest. The mother bird breaks the food into smaller pieces and feeds the babies using their beaks. They also provide water to the babies using their beaks, which keeps the chicks healthy and hydrated.
How Do Mother Birds Ensure All Chicks are Getting Food?
To provide a fair share to the chicks, the mother bird employs two strategies –
- She divides the food into smaller pieces and feeds each piece to the chick at a time. so that everyone gets an equal share and no one gets left out.
- She starts by feeding the largest chick and finally the smallest one, this technique ensures that everyone gets some amount of food.
What Kind of Food is Provided to Baby Birds?
The mother bird knows what type of food would be suitable for the baby bird. They provide protein-rich food that helps the baby to grow, build muscles, and develop bones. The mother bird also provides the chicks with a mixture of seeds and insects, maintaining a perfect balance of protein and fat. The food that the mother bird feeds their babies includes grains, vegetables, and fruits as well.
When Do Mother Birds Provide Solid Food to Babies?
When the baby bird is capable of breaking food, the mother birds start providing worms, crickets, grubs, and more, which helps the babies gain weight and grow faster.
What are the Different Ways of Feeding the Baby Bird?
Based on the species of bird, different techniques are involved while feeding the bird, starting with regurgitation, direct transfer, and passive absorption.
Regurgitation of Food
During the early stage, the birds feed their babies through beak-to-beak transfer. The parent bird stores the food in the gullet and this is the process of regurgitation. They bring up the partially digested food from the stomach to pass it onto the chicks directly into their mouth. More than 10 to 20 hours are spent to feed the babies, which is the stage of peak rearing time.
Direct Feeding
This is during the growing stage when the mother bird hunts to collect food and feed it directly to the babies. Often this involves a partial regurgitating process. Different types of food are bought, based on the bird species and it also helps to satisfy the intense nutritional demand of the chicks as they have high metabolic activity during this phase. They also feed water but avoid unnecessary food items that do not contribute to the development of the chick.
Brood Parasitism
Some mother birds depend on other mother birds to feed their babies and this is known as brood parasitism or nest parasitism, where the bird lays eggs in another bird’s nest and allows the host to raise the young ones. Here the brood parasite bird looks for a nest that belongs to any other bird, lays its eggs, and leaves. The host bird is unable to recognize the presence of the extra egg and incubates, feeds, and nourishes, till all the chicks are capable of surviving on their own. Often the baby bird of the parasitic species outcompetes the host eggs and kills them for food and attention.
How Many Times Does a Bird Need to Feed the Baby Bird?
Based on the species of bird, the number of times a baby bird needs to be fed differs. Only the mother bird can determine how many times their babies need to be fed in a day. Usually, the mother bird feeds every two hours in a day on average.
The baby bird makes a loud screeching noise when hungry and the mother bird puts food into their mouth. As the baby grows the feeding frequency increases. Also, the feeding time varies based on the season. When it is winter, the mother bird feeds the babies at night, and during summer, they feed during the day. Timely feeding is very important so that the bird can maintain proper body temperature.
What is the Challenge of Feeding Baby Birds?
Feeding a baby bird requires patience and careful consideration, the major challenges faced by the mother bird are –
Sourcing Food
Sourcing food is quite difficult as the mother bird needs to find food that would provide the baby bird with the necessary nutrients. They need to look for food that contains high protein and fat and should be fed frequently. They also need to ensure that the food doesn’t contain any additives so that there is no negative impact on the baby bird’s health.
Feeding Large broods
It becomes quite challenging for the mother bird to take care of a large brood, but still, she has to ensure that every chick gets proper food and attention. Also, every brood is unique and they have unique requirements, such as specific food types and time of feeding
Avoiding Predators
Predators are always on the lookout for weak and unprotected nests. So, it is the duty of the parent bird to ensure the complete safety of the brood. They need to keep a close watch on the nest as well as look for food at the same time, which is quite difficult. Often birds are seen to share the responsibility of raising the chicks, where the male bird looks for food and the female bird protects the nest.
What Does the Mother Bird Do When the Baby Bird Becomes Ill?
The mother bird cleans the nest, feeds tree leaves to the babies, and rubs water on their skin. They also change the position of the baby regularly.
What Should Be the Normal Body Temperature of The Baby Bird?
The body temperature of the baby bird should be maintained between 101 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit and if the temperature goes beyond 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the baby bird gets ill. The chick can also die if the temperature drops below 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
How to Take Care of Baby Birds in Captivity?
When the baby bird is confined, you need to maintain a favorable environment so that the bird can grow healthy. Prepare a nourishing meal that would mimic the natural diet of the bird. Keep the process and surroundings clean and sterilized. Never offer too much food to the baby bird, otherwise, they might fall ill, always feed based on their age and size. Nesting mothers in the cage does not require too much human interaction, so maintain a safe distance, otherwise, it can lead to irregular feeding patterns, emotional distress, and malnourishment of the baby birds.
