I generally identify the adult birds, and deduce that whatever they are feeding must be the young of the same species. I don't often have to identify a baby bird apart from its parents.

There it is—tiny, fragile, and utterly helpless-looking: a baby bird, alone on the ground. Its feathers seem half-finished, its wings flutter without flight, and its beady eyes blink up at the sky.

“If the baby bird is sparsely feathered and not capable of hopping, walking, flitting, or gripping tightly to your finger, it’s a nestling. If you can find the nest (it may be well hidden ...

Well, if the bird in question is around 127 million years old, and you’ve got yourself a synchrotron—a particle accelerator used to take incredibly detailed X-rays—you can learn quite a lot.