Subject: Re: Fledging Murrelets
Date: Jan 13 20:31:09 1998
From: wings at olympus.net - wings at olympus.net


Tweets --

More on the fledging of murrelets. Chris Maack writes

> ...The next day, almost all the down feathers had
>molted off and she was greeted by a totally different looking
>bird, "hard-penned" as the falconers say.
>
> [snip] ...The hefty appetite may be explained as either
>normal gorging, or perhaps the chick was being weaned
>off regular feedings by its parents so that it *would*
>leave the nest and thus was especially hungry.
>
>Probably in the wild, the molt would be more gradual,

You're on to something here, Chris. As a matter of fact, a Marbled Murrelet
chick *does* molt from a ball of fluff into its first full plumage (black
and white, very like adult winter plumage) within its last 48 hours on the
nest -- sometimes quicker than that. They can do this because the down is
on the tips of the emerging feathers, pushed out farther as the feathers
come in, and all the chick has to do is pluck the down off to reveal the
feathers underneath. Suddenly they go from being fairly cryptically colored
to being pretty obvious to potential predators. Gotta get out of there
then!

And yes, researchers are coming to believe that at least in most cases the
adults do restrict or stop feeding the chicks just prior to fledging,
perhaps hastening their departure. Puffin chicks are treated in a similar
manner.

-- Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net