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@sbourne

Can any bird wise person tell me why baby birds have scrabbly gray down?

My guess it may be because they are small and need to stay warm and match the gray scrabbly sticks in their nest. But are there other reasons? Maybe shedding flight feathers and growing wouldn't be energy efficient? So a temporary puff ball of warm down is better?

Sarah E Bourne

@futurebird Not all baby birds have gray down. Red-tailed Hawk hatchlings are pure white, for instance, and are cuter than heck. They get a little dowdy-looking as the contour and flight feathers come in.

@futurebird Here's a picture of 2 in a nest, probably only a day or two old. You can see part of a parent's huge brown-feathered body on the right.
allaboutbirds.org/cams/wp-cont
Edit: meant to say, this is a screenshot from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology Hawk Cam.

@sbourne

This is just devolving into posting cute owls but I don't really care.

@futurebird @sbourne Here, on german television, Bob Ross has been broadcasted at 2 or 3 am for decades. Perfect treat when you get home reasonably wasted. 😵‍💫🎨

@futurebird @sbourne I did not find the baby owl photo yet, but here is an adult burrowing owl.

@sbourne

@futurebird yeah gray is common but not universal. Ducks can be brown and yellow, chicken chicks are all kinds of colors. Some chicks are white, many are mottled brown.