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Both parents are attending these young common loons. Although diving starts in about two days after birth, young loons stay with their parents where they will ride on their backs to stay warm and dry. Parents feed their young hourly for up to three months, even though they can fend for themselves for some time. When fall arrives parents and young may go separate ways. Ralph LaPlant Photo

With nearly 9,000 bird species worldwide, birds are survivors. Keeping this in mind, let’s get going on the journey of a bird’s life once it is hatched. There are two basic types of birds. Atricial birds are those that are helpless at birth and need their parent’s assistance to survive. Among others, robins and sparrows are classified as atricial. Precocial birds, on the other hand, only partially need parental guidance as they are born with their eyes open, have down feathers and are able to walk. Precocial birds include ducks, pheasants, quail and others.
    Birds are born cold-blooded, weak and wet. Because of these facts, the parents have to keep nestlings warm until the young can regulate their own temperature. Parents do this by “brooding,” which is accomplished by using their own heat to keep their young warm. The brood patch, an area of the parent bird that has no hair, is used for this purpose as it transmits heat better than through feathers.
    Although not cast in stone, the female often broods and the male procures food. Feeding appears to be concentrated during the morning and evening. The number of feedings per day varies with larger birds being feed infrequent compared to smaller ones. One bird, the Eurasian Swift, had been tracked, covering 600 miles in a day to acquired food for its young!
    Nestlings are brooded until they grow feathers and become warm-blooded. While the young are in the nest, parents often eat feces or simply carry it away provide sanitation.
    Before leaving the nest, babies will often stretch in preparation for their fledgling stage of life. A fledgling is a bird that has left the nest but still partially relies on parents. Larger birds tend to stay in the nest longer than smaller species and when it is time, most young birds leave one-at-a-time. It is the fact that a nest becomes overcrowded or that a gradual decrease in feeding prompts the young’s departure from the nest. The parent bald eagle actually stops feeding their young when they believe it is time for them to leave the nest.
    Young birds survive as a result of a combination of instinct and/or learned skills. It is not certain whether survival skills such as flying or swimming are learned or instinctive. Instinctive skills are automatic responses. Learned skills are those obtained by observing older birds or parents. Whether instinctive or learned, a bird fine-tunes the needed skills by repetition, trial-and-error, by copying another bird’s success at a task or by associating a procedure with success.
    Survival is the goal. There is an average survival rate of about 40% from eggs being laid to young leaving the nest. Once leaving the nest, the first year is the most crucial with an average of two out of three birds dying. The second year about a fourth die. From then on the going gets better. Harsh weather, predators, disease and man all take their toll on young birds. Those that have learned survival skills have the best chances of living and carrying on the species.