Altricial and Precocial
by Lauretta Young

Most birdwatchers learn a bit of ornithology when we start to become competent at identification. After understanding the differences among birds of the same color (like the brown sparrows compared to the brown songbirds) or birds that act the same (like ducks compared to grebes in the water) we often then start to become more interested in the more esoteric science. Why are some bird chicks—very soon upon hatching—out and about with the parents, yet other birds hatch with no feathers, closed eyelids and require some time to emerge out of their nests?

Canada geese and their gosling in a Cedar Mill back yard. Photo © 2012 by Jeff Young.

I recently just learned these two words—altricial and precocial. Even though I was a science major and took comparative vertebrate anatomy, I must have missed these two interesting concepts, or else they weren't discussed in those courses. Seeing the tiny goslings swimming immediately after hatching and apparently eating grass with the parents got me curious. I know that other birds species like chickadees or robins spend quite a bit of time being fed by parents before even growing downy feathers or searching for food on their own.

Altricial species of birds (and mammals) have young who are born relatively helpless. Many hatch with tightly-shut eyes, and need a lot of care to maintain body temperature, and need to be fed to grow and be able to defend themselves. Examples of such birds are the robins we might have seen naked in their nests while the parents fly back and forth feeding large quantities of insects. These birds tend to have smaller eggs and tend to have both parents involved in the post-hatching feeding extravaganza.

Precocial species tend to have larger protein-rich eggs (think ducks and chickens and turkeys and pheasants), tend to be ground nesters, although one can find exceptions, and tend to have chicks who don't need much from the parents other than some protection and instruction about food sources. When they hatch, they have most of their downy outer layer and can move about, although most baby birds do seem slightly awkward.

Various ornithologists have tried to make some ecological niche sense out of this. There are a variety of theories about numbers of young and types of hatch, but there are many exceptions to most theories. So since I am not a dedicated ornithologist, I quit reading the science at that point…

However it seems to me that we are all "hatching.” I have been impressed with how much our cells are ever-changing. We are truly new beings as time goes by. Our skin cells totally renew themselves generally in about a month. Our other cells "turn over" at various rates as well. Some of this is genetic and some can be accelerated by environmental factors. The new science of epigenetics—the factors in our surroundings, which influence such biological events—is truly an exciting field.

As we all hatch, we have some biology that makes us more “altricial” at some things and more “precocial” at others. I am sure this is an artistic take on these biological words yet it does resonate to me that all of us are hatching. Not just in spring--- but all year and as we age.

If I add a new skill (i.e. new cells in my brain or new neural pathways) to an existing skill I am more likely to be somewhat competent—somewhat precocial and need “less parenting” from my mentors/bosses/ teachers/elders.

If however, I add something totally new, I am more like the newly-hatched helpless chick—I will need a lot of “feeding” from the elders.. I have personally done both—picked up knitting after some years—precocial—still awkward but can do it. And then I started teaching – brand new—needed lots of help – altrical or the cautiously incompetent phase of new learning. Thankfully, in my symbolic world, if I mess up my knitting I just rip it out. In the wild world outside where the birds live, if they mess up, a coyote will have the gosling for dinner—a totally different outcome…

I hope you enjoy learning new things like I do, and that you go outside whether you are an altricial birder or an experienced precocial birder who wants to ask new questions!

Lauretta Young MD is a retired Kaiser chief of psychiatry who now teaches at OHSU in the integrative medicine program and the healthcare MBA program. She has had some awesome "elder" mentors (thank you Niki)… She mentors people in learning to bird watch. Check out her website at www.portlandbirdwatching.com and see her husband's photos from Cedar Mill and beyond at www.flickr.com/photos/youngbirders

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