Preening This picture is typical of the way these babies need to co-operate, in order to not fall out of the nest.   They look like a set of bookends, unless you know that they are actually practicing preening. Their state of health will rely on proper preening, to keep the feathers remaining in good condition for every year of the rest of their life... but I still think they look pretty silly here - don't you? If you look closely, you can just see the tail of the 4th chick sitting in the middle of the nestpan.

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