I THINK THIS BABY WILL HAVE TO BE CALLED INDEPENDANCE.

Here at the museum we have a huge butterfly haven and a couple of years ago we decided to introduce some birds to enhance the exhibit. We now have a variety of exotic species that reside there under my tender loving care, one of which is the Melba Finch Pytilia melba, a seed eater from Sub-Saharan Africa. This morning while doing my early morning rounds to check on all my feathered friends I discovered we had a new addition, as seen above. This youngster is newly fledged, as you can see it is still quite fluffy, and hasn't got all its adult plumage yet. It is about two thirds of th size of the parents. I noticed it has already started pecking around for itself although it is more than happy to accept food from the parents when they are close by. More on the other birds very soon.

Photo Credits - CJT