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Like many precocial hatchlings, domestic chickens are already covered with a coat of downy feathers when they hatch. The word down comes from the Old Norse word dúnn, which had the same meaning as its modern equivalent. [1] The down feather is considered to be the most "straightforward" of all feather types. [2]
Newly hatched chicks have downy feathers that do not become waterproof until the chicks grow into juveniles. [20] The juvenile plumage, attained by thirty days after a chick hatches, is dark brown or gray above and white below. These feathers are mainly needed to protect the chicks from the strong sun rather than keep them warm.
The parents share incubating and brooding duties until the chick is about a week old, after which they often stand guard rather than brood. The young are semi-altricial—they are helpless when born but are covered in downy feathers (truly altricial birds are born naked), and their eyes are open at birth. Developing quickly, the chicks are ...
A typical vaned feather features a main shaft called the quill with an upper section called the rachis. Fused to the rachis are a series of branches, or barbs ; the barbs in turn have barbules branching off them, and they in turn branch yet again with a series of growths called barbicels , some of which have minute hooks called hooklets for ...
Extremely precocial species are called "superprecocial". Examples are the megapode birds, which have full-flight feathers at hatching and which, in some species, can fly on the same day. [ 3 ] Enantiornithes [ 4 ] and pterosaurs [ citation needed ] were also capable of flight soon after hatching.
Food chain in a Swedish lake. Osprey feed on northern pike, which in turn feed on perch which eat bleak which eat crustaceans.. A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web, often starting with an autotroph (such as grass or algae), also called a producer, and typically ending at an apex predator (such as grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivore (such as earthworms and woodlice ...
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The chicks hatch with a covering of downy feathers. By around day three to five, feather quills emerge which will become the adult feathers. The chicks are brooded by the female for between 9 and 14 days. [15] The female later joins the male in the task of bringing food. [24]