this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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I don't know the exact species involved here, but if I had a penny, I'd bet the two individuals on the left are mom and dad while the third individual that looks like it is wildly gesturing is probably a juvenile begging its parent to feed it.
In my part of the world, you see this kind of behavior in many different bird species. In some species, the juveniles appear to be larger than the parents and yet will still beg for food.
I'm almost positive that this is the case. I think these may be goldfinches, but I'm not positive. Mom's on the lookout from the tree, dad is feeding. Juvenile is actually lifting both wings, but you can only see the closer one. They do a goofy little flutter with both wings and their mouths open when they are trying to get a parent to feed them.
i noticed you said "appear to be larger". is that bc they have juvenile plumage to appear larger?
I'm not sure if the recent fledglings actually are larger or if it's more of an illusion.
Logically, it doesn't make sense that their bodies (sans plumage) would actually be substantially larger than the mature adult parents, other than maybe if the juveniles have a lot of "baby fat" or just different body shapes early on. I assume there are other aspects in play, like maybe they have more down feathers that push up on their outer plumage causing it to be more fluffed up and giving the appearance of them being larger than their parents.
Maybe a birdologology expert can weigh in (yes I know the actual term is ornithologist).
We had a blackbird that lost both its parents. It started begging from the sparrows instead and they happily fed her. She's an adult now, she was with the flock of sparrows until she found a husband.