fledge
/flɛdʒ
/verb [no object]
1(Of a young bird) develop wing feathers that are large enough for flight: the young fledge around four weeks after hatching...
- Young birds fledge at 14 to 22 days and are partially dependent on adult birds for 23 to 28 days post-fledging.
- Young birds fledge after a length of time that varies widely between species, but is roughly similar to the length of the incubation period.
- The young chicks fledge or leave the nest in around 60 days and become fully independent in 14 more days.
1.1 [with object] Bring up (a young bird) until its wing feathers are developed enough for flight: they fledged twenty-four chicks in fourteen months...
- Although we may have missed a few birds that lost their eggs early, it is unlikely that we missed birds that fledged chicks.
- Breeding couples are generally able to successfully fledge a chick only once in nine years.
- Males were sampled on average 4 days after they had fledged their nestlings.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from the obsolete adjective fledge 'ready to fly', from Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vlug 'quick, agile', also to fly1.