It's time to leave home, kids!

When baby birds leave the nest, they are called fledglings. A fledgling is the equivalent of a teenager. They are too big and gangly to stay at home, they’re keen to see the world and their parents are fed up with constantly feeding them. But how do you leave home when you hatched out on a cliff, in a pitch-black burrow or just a long way up from the ground?

Guillemots
Chicks leave the nest after only three weeks. Unfortunately the only exit route takes a huge amount of courage. Guillemot chicks are called jumplings, as they have to throw themselves off the cliff edge where they were born into the sea below. If they don’t, they are at risk of being plucked off the cliff and eaten by a hungry herring gull.
You can watch a video of jumplings taking the plunge on the BBC website.

Goldeneyes
You better hope you’re not afraid of heights if you're a goldeneye duckling. Goldeneyes make their nests in holes or nestboxes in trees, high off the ground. So when it comes to leaving home, the tiny ducklings have to leap out of the tree, down onto the ground below, where they use their little legs to follow Mum to water. You can watch a video of these gorgeous balls of fluff shooting out of a high nestbox and you can read an account of goldeneye ducklings pinging out of their nestbox 'like popcorn' this week at our Abernethy nature reserve.

Puffins
Puffins lay one egg in underground burrows. Once the chick hatches out, it stays in this dark sanctuary for about seven weeks, being waited on by its parents, who deliver high-protein fish meals. Because it’s so dark, the parents and their chick never get to see each other. Eventually the parents get fed up and abandon the ‘teenage’ puffin. The hungry fledgling has to leave the burrow on its own, at night. The little bird then makes its way to the sea.

Swifts
Before swift chicks leave the nest, they do a few flaps and wing stretches to get used to the idea, before launching themselves into the air. They are as good at flying as their parents from the first moment they take off, and once they set off on that first flight there’s no looking back. In fact, as soon as their minute legs have left the nest, they won’t touch down again for two years! They spend all their time in the air. Swifts eat, mate and even sleep in flight.

Find out more about this topic and what to do if you find chicks in your garden from our website.