Ostriches
The baby ostrich on the left has been out of its egg for several
minutes. Its feathers are beginning to dry.
The other baby ostrich is just breaking out of its egg. In a moment, it
will push itself all the way out.
Coming out of the egg
Inside its egg the tiny baby bird lies curled up in a ball. Its head is
bigger than its body. Its eyes are closed. All of the food it will need
is inside the egg.
The baby bird grows until it fills the inside of the egg. Then it is
ready to hatch.
Many kinds of baby birds have a tiny tooth near the tip of the bill. A
baby bird uses this tooth to help break the eggshell. A few days after
the bird hatches, or leaves the egg, the tooth will either disappear or
fall off.
When the baby is ready to hatch, it begins to move inside the egg. The
eggshell cracks. The baby bird scrapes its tooth against the crack and
the crack grows bigger. Pieces of the shell fall off.
After a while the baby bird has made a big hole in the shell. The baby
bird wiggles through the hole. A new life has come into the world.
