This is a bird note.

These baby geese or gosslings are leaving the

gosslings are leaving the nest.

Gosslings are a familiar sight because almost as soon as they hatch,

they're up and walking.

Ducklings, goslings, and other waterfowl spend up to 30 days in the egg, so they're able to walk,

swim, and feed themselves as soon as they hatch.

We call these chicks precocial because they seem to be

mature beyond their age, like precocious children. By contrast, the babies of pigeons,

robins, and most songbirds spend less time perhaps only two weeks

maturing in the egg.

They hatch blind, naked, and helpless, and must continue to develop in the nest before heading out on their own.

We call these chicks, altricial, needing to be nourished, since they depend on their parents to feed and protect them.

By the time these juvenile birds leave the nest, they're the same size and shape as the parents and often we don't recognize them as young birds.

So Downey chicks following their mother around are precocial.

Naked, helpless, nestbound babies are altricial.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

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