The altricial issue: every list of “adorable baby animal photos” that includes a bird will inevitably get it wrong in one of three ways:
- by labeling the offspring of a less familiar precocial species as a familiar one (rail for raven/crow)
- by labeling a very small adult of another species as the offspring of a more familiar species (falconets or pygmy falcons for peregrine falcons)
- by mistaking a realistic stuffed or felted animal for a real bird (owls)
And this is because scrawny blind naked altricial baby birds just don’t have the immediate cuteness factor of baby mammals.
