Chapter 99 Bald Eagle (Part 4)
The growth rate of the chicks is amazing, and they change their appearance almost every day.
Counting from the day she hatched, the fat little bird Yu Yiyun is already officially one month old!
He couldn't see what he looked like now, but he could see the two big chicks that lived and ate with him, with more than 7,000 feathers growing between their soft down.
In about a month, these quills will turn into feathers that can both keep the chicks warm and help them soar in the air.
In addition to growing feathers, Yu Yiyun, who is the fastest growing child in the family, has gradually gained strength in her claws and legs and is now able to stand up and walk around the nest.
His older brothers and sisters, who hatched earlier than him, can only stand now and still have difficulty walking.
Yu Yiyun knew long ago that if a young bird wanted to grow up quickly, in addition to eating as much as possible, it also needed to -
Supplement calcium!
Smart little fat bird, develop the awareness of calcium supplementation early on.
While the other little birds were busy fighting each other, they hid nearby and secretly gnawed on their own big eggshells.
The main component of eggshell is calcium carbonate, which is not only high in calcium but also easy to absorb. It is the best choice for calcium supplementation for baby birds.
Yu Yiyun could only nibble a little at the beginning, which was like scraping the eggshell.
As the little fat bird grew bigger, its beak slowly developed, and he was finally able to peck small triangular holes in the eggshell and then swallow the whole thing into his stomach.
After chewing for about half a month, the fat little bird had eaten all of its eggshells.
His eyes were rolling around and he first noticed his brother and sister's eggshells, but then quickly moved away.
Unlike me, my brothers and sisters have no awareness of protecting the eggshell.
They were born so long ago that the eggshells were piled up with the garbage in the bird's nest, exposed to the wind and sun. There was also excrement attached to them, and the clean-freak fat bird couldn't eat them at all.
Yu Yiyun shifted her focus and looked at the fish that her mom and dad brought back.
During the brooding period, the male eagle will catch a fish, eat the fish head and bring it back to the nest.
The female eagle is responsible for tearing the fish meat and feeding it to her cubs.
It waits until the cubs are full before eating the rest.
Sea eagles mainly eat fish by swallowing them. Their strong stomach acid can digest hard fish bones.
Fish bones are the part of a fish that is richest in calcium.
After the little fat chick successfully hatched, it held the eggshell and nibbled on it every day. The speed and hardness of its beak development far exceeded those of young birds of the same age.
Common sea eagle chicks cannot eat completely independently until 5-6 weeks after birth.
Before Yu Yiyun was even a month old, she had already learned to get close to the food and perform scraping with her tender beak before her mother fed her.
Sometimes, the female eagle would bite the fish bones into pieces, and the little fat cuckoo would roll over and eat the splattered fish bone debris.
On sunny days, the little fat bird rolls to the edge of the nest, looking for an angle where the sun is not blocking it. It spreads its wings as far as possible, imitating a solar generator and trying to get calcium from the sunlight.
Thanks to Yu Yiyun's continuous and high-intensity efforts, he had already started jumping when his friend had just learned to stand up!
It normally takes about two months for a sea eagle chick to grow from hatching to learning to walk.
Even if they can walk, young birds must stay in the nest and cannot go anywhere until they learn to fly.
Of course, 'you can't go anywhere' mainly applies to normal young birds.
How can the little fat chick be considered a normal bird?
As soon as he learned to walk, he jumped up and climbed to the edge of the bird's nest, overlooking the living environment of his own "community".
You don’t know until you see it. Yu Yiyun climbed to the edge of the bird’s nest and found that her mansion was bigger and deeper than she had imagined.
The bird's nest is estimated to be more than two meters wide and about five meters high.
Yu Yiyun estimated based on the density of tree branches that the bird's nest weighs at least 1.5 tons.
Coming to this conclusion, he raised his head in admiration and looked at the Douglas fir tree supporting the bird's nest.
As a master of construction in nature, the bald eagle will bring branches to renovate and reinforce its nest before the breeding season begins every year.
Because sea eagles like to build their nests in an exaggerated manner, they must choose tall and strong trees to support the heavy nests.
Most bald eagle couples prefer Douglas fir and hairy poplar.
There are even many locals who deliberately prune these two types of trees to attract more and more bald eagles to build nests here.
If trees could sue, Douglas firs would need legal help.
Douglas fir has strong vitality, can grow to more than 100 meters, and has many branches in its crown.
Yu Yiyun used her small hooked claws to hold on tightly to the trunk of the Douglas fir, fearing that a strong wind would blow her little cub under the tree.
On the first day after leaving the bird's nest, he first clung to the nearest tree trunks to train his grasping ability.
After gradually mastering the balance of walking on the tree, the little fat bird became more bold and tried to move from high branches to low branches.
The tree-climbing skill that was forcibly sealed in the last world has once again been given the opportunity to show its prowess.
In just a few days, Yu Yiyun learned to move nimbly among the branches.
It looked like a...
Free range chicken.
The two chicks that were born earlier saw that whenever the adult bird was not at home, the younger one would secretly run out to play, and they were itching to do so.
You know, bald eagles are a high-risk group for "Cain-Abel Syndrome" and the phenomenon of involution is very serious.
The idea that "those who develop slowly will be bullied" is engraved in the DNA of almost every sea eagle.
Humans have discovered through observation that when an eagle in a bird's nest begins to eat on its own, gradually all the young birds no longer need to be fed.
When one eagle starts to test flight, after two or three days at most, another eagle will also try to fly.
Yu Yiyun grew so fast that the other two young birds had to stop sleeping and focus on training their own limbs.
On the fifth day after Yu Yiyun learned to climb trees, the other two cubs also followed her to the edge of the bird's nest.
This caused the Wild Orphan Chick Care Association, which accidentally observed this nest of chicks, to be stunned.
The staff member suffered a cardiac arrest when he saw the three baby birds staggering and dancing on the edge of the nest.
They instinctively believe that the adult bird encountered an accident or abandoned the chicks, causing the hungry chicks to have no choice but to leave the nest.
I raised the telescope and looked carefully, and found that the three birds were in good condition and did not look like they were hungry.
The fur in the middle is the darkest, and it looks equally wide horizontally and vertically, with its body almost becoming a perfect sphere...
"Oh my god, look at the one in the middle!"
"It's no exaggeration to say that I can see him even without a telescope."
"Oh my god, are two month old chicks that big?"
"I have to tell you that the temperature rebounded relatively late this year. The chicks that hatched in this area are not even two months old yet."
"So the ball is only 6 or 7 weeks at most?"
The staff concluded that 'the ball' was only six weeks old, and began to digest the fact that the 'six-week-old ball' had already learned to walk and was dancing on the edge of the bird's nest.
Before they could digest it, something even more shocking happened!
I saw the round ball of fur skillfully moving along the high branch, grabbing the branches with its claws, and then bravely jumping to a slightly lower branch.
The two baby birds still in the nest were so envious of him when they saw him flying freely between the branches that they stretched out their little legs to try him out.
The little fat bird noticed their intention, chirped loudly, and nimbly climbed back along the branch to stop his brother and sister from acting rashly.
Yu Yiyun found a sturdy branch and taught them how to stand firmly on the tree trunk...
The staff of the Wild Orphan Rescue Association opened their mouths wider than ever when they saw this smooth operation.
You know, before bald eagles learn to fly, they can hardly leave their nests.
Not to mention chicks that are only 6 weeks old, even for fledglings with fully grown wings, there is still a great risk for them to leave the nest before they truly learn to fly.
During the bald eagle breeding season, the Wild Orphan Rescue Association picks up birds everywhere every day, and rescues countless poor little ones who fall out of bird nests.
The lucky chicks can return to the wild after being rescued.
If a baby bird has a broken bone or is seriously injured, it will not be able to soar into the sky even if it recovers.
Some even more miserable birds either died on the spot after falling or starved to death due to lack of timely rescue.
Before today, the staff unanimously agreed that if a baby bird left the nest, it would be tantamount to seeking death.
Unexpectedly, such an incredible scene appeared within their observation range.
The conservation association immediately uploaded the video of "Fatty Climbing a Tree" to the social media platform, sparking heated discussions among netizens.
The focus of netizens' discussion was not "the chicks can actually climb trees", but "this black glutinous rice dumpling is so cute"...
Not long after the video was released, the number of views exceeded six figures every minute, which was several times the daily data of the rescue association. Tens of thousands of people signed a petition in blood demanding an update on the sequel of "Black Glutinous Rice Dumplings".
The staff were equally curious about the ball, and for several days afterwards, they watched them from afar through observation equipment.
Under their gaze, not only did the black glutinous rice dumpling still climb up and down nimbly, but even his companions, who were suspected to be his younger brothers and sisters, learned to walk on the branches near the bird's nest.
The staff opened the "Bald Eagle Rescue Guide" and put a bracket behind the sentence that the chicks cannot leave the nest, and added:
'Some chicks can climb trees.'
Just as they were preparing to discuss with the academic community and study from a scientific perspective the impact of "when young birds start climbing trees, what impact will it have on the development of the population."
One afternoon, an accident happened unexpectedly.
As the young birds grow older, their demand for food increases.
In addition, as the weather gets hotter, the young birds have grown feathers and no longer need the female bird to stay by their side to provide warmth.
Before the unbearable heat dome arrives, the female and male eagles seize the time to go out hunting, trying to feed all their cubs fat and strong.
After the parent birds left, the three restless little balls left the nest again.
This time, Yu Yiyun plans to challenge herself.
He jumped to the lowest tree trunk and did not stop. He continued to climb down along the thick trunk, using his beak and claws as support like a woodpecker, little by little.
The surface of the Douglas fir is uneven and has many cracks, enough to support a small fat chick.
The brothers and sisters in the tree saw Yu Yiyun climbing under the tree, and they also challenged their own limits, tentatively jumping onto a nearby tree trunk that did not need to support the bird's nest.
The two chicks had just stood firm when they heard a "click" sound.
Except for a few branches that did not support the bird's nest, the rest of the branches finally could not bear the weight of the bird's nest and broke one after another.
The huge and heavy bird's nest fell under the tree and was smashed to pieces under the watchful eyes of the three baby birds and the staff.
Yu Yiyun jumped back several steps in fear, her heart pounding, and only one thought remained in her mind:
I just said Douglas Fir needs legal aid!!!
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