70. African Firefinch It is not unusual to see this African Firefinch, with its more obviously appropriate name and its soft red and brown colours, busily picking up seeds in mixed- species groups that include the Cordon-bleus. Such birds can eat only small seed grains, and not having teeth and jaws to grind them up, they must swallow these whole. The bird’s digestion system, then, will have to deal somehow with the process of getting the nourishing kernel out of the dry protective husk. But how do they feed their very young chicks? For most small species, young chicks are fed on protein-rich insects until they are able to handle seeds and other kinds of food. But some birds – pigeons and doves who also eat mainly seeds and grains, for instance – feed their young a special kind of ‘milk’ that is secreted not from mammary glands but from special cells in the lining of the crop (part of the oesophagus) of the parent birds. It is nutritious and contains anti-oxidants and immune-boosters. A few other birds – flamingos and some penguins – can do this trick as well. Perhaps it is not unlike the ‘milk’ made from oats that vegans enjoy. Birds of AFRICAMA House 144 Birds of AFRICAMA House 145