This is bird note. Most baby birds are adorable little flups, but not all of them.

Baby esterilded finches look downright creepy. About 140 species of esterilded finches, including

waxbills, parrot finches, and fire finches are spread across

Africa, Asia, and Australia. Newborn finches beg their parents for food, mouths wide open. The tongue

and palate are strangely spotted and ringed. Most species chicks have mouth markings and colors

ranging from black or white to bright yellow,

orange, red, or blue.

The function of these markings has long puzzled scientists.

Some say that they make baby beaks visible to parents delivering food to poorly lit nests. Others think the markings

signal the health of the chicks. And there's a third school of thought. Other birds target the

nest of some African finches for egg dumping, sneaking their eggs into the finches nest. And those

foster chicks have similar, colorful markings. So perhaps

mouth markings evolved due to competition for food between finch babies and those other bird babies.

It's not yet settled whether foster babies mimic the mouths of finch babies or vice versa.

Either way, they look equally bizarre.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.