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The birds are best known for building massive nest mounds of decaying vegetation, which the male attends, adding or removing litter to regulate the internal heat while the eggs develop. However, some bury their eggs in other ways; there are burrow-nesters which use geothermal heat, and others which simply rely on the heat of the sun warming the ...
Altricial birds are less able to contribute nutrients in the pre-natal stage; their eggs are smaller and their young are still in need of much attention and protection from predators. This may be related to r/K selection; however, this association fails in some cases. [18] In birds, altricial young usually grow faster than precocial young.
In general smaller birds tend to hatch faster, but there are exceptions, and cavity nesting birds tend to have longer incubation periods. It can be an energetically demanding process, with adult albatrosses losing as much as 83 g of body weight a day. [6] Megapode eggs take from 49 to 90 days depending on the mound and ambient temperature.
Endocrine disruption of hatchling birds increases the rate of deformities and lowers the chances of survival. [26] In bearded vultures, two eggs are laid, but one hatchling will often kill the other. [27] Bird hatchlings raised by humans have sometimes been noted to act towards their human caregivers as their parents. [28]
The generalist brown-headed cowbird may have evolved an egg coloration mimicking a number of their hosts. [2] Size may also be important for the incubation and survival of parasitic species; it may be beneficial for parasitic eggs to be similar in size to the eggs of the host species. [3]
Allofeeding is a type of food sharing behaviour observed in cooperatively breeding species of birds. Allofeeding refers to a parent, sibling or unrelated adult bird feeding altricial hatchlings, which are dependent on parental care for their survival. [1] Allofeeding also refers to food sharing between adults of the same species. [2]
African honeyguide birds are known to lay their eggs in underground nests of other bee-eating bird species. The honeyguide chicks kill the hatchlings of the host using their needle-sharp beaks just after hatching, much as cuckoo hatchlings do. The honeyguide mother ensures her chick hatches first by internally incubating the egg for an extra ...
Scientists can use fecal sacs to learn a number of things about individual birds. Examination of the contents of the sac can reveal details of the nestling's diet, [14] [15] and can indicate what contaminants the young bird has been exposed to. [16] The presence of an adult bird carrying a fecal sac is used in bird censuses as an indication of ...