Feeding young mother’s milk is usually associated with mammals, which distinguishes them from other animals. And, like many other species, the birds also do not have mammary glands and are usually not known that they produce a substance similar to milk. They count on feeding chicks who carried out food, insects or even a whole prey, depending on the species. However, like most rules in nature, there are exceptions.
It is amazing to know what a handful of bird species developed to produce a substance known as yielding milk. It is not a milk similar to what is produced by mammals and does not contain lactose and does not come from the mammary glands, but serves a similar purpose for the young. Yielding milk This secretion, rich in nutrients, is produced from the lining of the crop, a bag in the throat, which provides the necessary fats and proteins for hatching during their most vulnerable days.
“Despite its name, yielding milk is not real milk, but secretion, rich in proteins and fats that perform a comparable function,” says birdwatcher Sarah Wagner in bird biology.
Here are three special species of birds that produce yield milk to educate their young.
Pigeons and pigeons
Pigeons and pigeons Perhaps the most famous birds that produce yield milk. Both men’s and women-member species contribute to the feeding of the chicks of this thick, yellowish-white fluid during the first few days after hatching.
Milk from pigeons is incredibly rich because it contains about 60% protein and high fat, which helps chicks grow rapidly in the first week. This yield is produced when launching the hormone prolactin, the same hormone responsible for the production of milk in mammals.
According to Dr. Wagner, “the production of cultural milk in pigeons is regulated hormone from prolactin, imitating the biological path observed in mammals.”
Flamingace
Flamingace are another unexpected member of this group. Both the man and the female flamingo produce bright red colored milk; This red color comes from carotenoid pigments in its diet, the same pigments that give flamingam their iconic pink color.
Flamingo yielding milk is also rich in fat and protein and contains compounds that increase immunity to maintain the development of chicks in the early stages. During the first few weeks of life, flamingo chicks depend entirely on this substance for nutrition. Inclusion in the article 2022 in the national wildlife: “Flamingo yielding milk is so significant that parents can lose up to 10% of their body weight during feeding.”
Emperor Penguins
Despite the fact that imperial penguins live in one of the most extreme climates on Earth, they have developed this amazing adaptation. If the female leaves hunting after putting an egg, the male incubats the egg for more than two months without eating.
When the chick hatches as the mother returns, the father produces milk secretion from his esophagus (food pipe) to keep the chick.
This substance is high in protein and is a temporary solution until the mother returns with real food. In fact, it is not milk, but he played the same role.
According to the sea biologist Dr. Linda Chen in the magazine Polar Life Journal, “the Emperor Penguin’s Fathers produce a cottage cheese, similar to a secretion that allows the chick to survive all day long in the absence of the mother.”
Credit: Canva
