30 Birds When They’re Babies Versus All Grown Up

Everyone loves seeing cute, red cardinals outside their window. They're so popular that they have been designated the state bird of seven states in the US: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Technically, only the males of this species are peacocks, while the females are peahens, and all of them together are peafowl. Also, technically, a group of them is called an "ostentation" or a "pride", but we probably won't remember either of those rules.

Puffins' feet and beaks only turn orange during their spring breeding season. Conveniently for them, that's also the only time when they come ashore, so we only have photos of them looking their best.

Barn owls don't actually hoot, they only screech. Mood.

The grey-crowned crane, one of the flashiest members of the crane family, lives in south and east Africa and is the national bird of Uganda.

The size of a toucan's bill can make predators think that it isn't worth trying to catch one, but it's so light and delicate that it's not actually useful for self-defense.

It only takes 21 days for a fertilized chicken egg to form a fluffy little chick like this one, but it takes a lot of work. A hen turns the egg over at least 50 times a day so it can remain in the center of the egg and grow normally.

If you haven't had any kind of cockatoo as a pet before, you probably didn't know that they produce dust. It keeps their feathers clean, but does the opposite for the bird owner's home.

Falcons can be trained to be bird security guards and keep other birds away from places where they could cause trouble, like landfills or vineyards.

Chaffinches are some of the most common singing birds, but maybe "singing" isn't the right word, as they actually have at least 9 calls with consistent and discrete meanings.

Most of hummingbirds' functions happen too quickly for humans to even perceive: their wings flap at least 50 times per second, their heart rate is about 20 beats per second, and they can stick out and withdraw their tongues 20 times per second while feeding.

Woodpeckers' disporportionately long tongues wrap around the skull, like a tape measure.

Golden pheasants are native to the forests of China, but they've been imported and formed feral populations on every continent but Antarctica, because everyone wants some golden pheasants, I guess.