The next time your parent yanks the covers off and says, “The early bird gets the worm,” tell them you’re more of a grassland bird and you prefer to take your time.
Smithsonian magazine reported that unlike many other bird species that leave early in the day to have more time to search for safety, adolescent grassland birds tend to hang out in the nest well into the day. Don’t call them lazy — it’s strategic and according to researchers, an effective survival method.
“To some extent, teen birds are ‘kind of like [human] teenagers,’” said Nicola Koper, a conservation biologist who may not know just how hard some teens work. She is a co-author of The Auk: Ornithological Advances’s new study on the fledging patterns of grassland birds. The study found that many grassland birds, such as the chestnut-collared longspur, sleep in past noon or all day. Others go in and out of the nest several times before finally leaving.