A Full Crop This picture offers quite a good look at a chick's crop, partly filled with food, and easily visible - it's the yellow bulge along the edge of the neck. It also illustrates nicely how the beaks interlock, while food is being transferred from parent to chick. One of the most embarassing - and later, funny - moments in many new canary breeders' lives comes shortly after their first clutch of chicks hatches - they phone their mentors in an utter panic, thinking that their chicks have developed a sudden 'growth' on the neck, only to find that they have been actually looking at a crop filled with food!

Click on the larger image to return to the thumbnails, or use the back and next links to visit all the images. back     home     next