🌱 A beginner 🐦 A young bird 🐤 Just grown feathers

fledgeling

5.5

Having feathers for flying and still young

adjective
/ˈflɛdʒlɪŋ/

: pichón

We watched as the fledgeling robins took their first flights.

Examples

The fledgeling bird took its first flight yesterday.
The fledgeling sparrows hopped awkwardly along the garden wall.
A fledgeling owl peered curiously from the nest's edge.
Look at that fledgeling trying to soar.
The fledgeling bird spread its wings, eager to explore the world outside the nest.
As spring arrived, we observed a fledgeling sparrow practicing its first flights across the sunny backyard.
A fledgeling chick was nervously flapping its wings, preparing to join its siblings in the sky.

Synonyms

fledged

vsfledgeling

Specialized

38 5.3

Birds that have grown the feathers they need can fly

names the young bird that has just developed wing feathers

fledgling

vsfledgeling

1 6.1

Describes a young bird that has just learned to fly

is the same meaning but an alternative spelling form

full-fledged

vsfledgeling

1 5.5

A bird with fully grown feathers that is ready to fly

focuses on the initial feather growth rather than complete adulthood

fully fledged

vsfledgeling

1 4.8

Having all the feathers and strength needed to fly away from the nest

is about the early stage of feather growth, not full maturity

How Feathered

fledged

Specialized

38 5.3

fledgeling

5.5

downy

6 4.2

unfledged

1 9.9

Surface Forms

fledgeling positive

Morphology

fledgeling = fledge (transparent) = fledge + ling

The word is transparently built from 'fledge' plus the suffix '-ling', referring to a bird that has just fledged.

Etymology

Fledgeling comes from the verb fledge 'to grow feathers', so used as an adjective it describes a bird that has just developed the wing feathers needed for flight. That is why a fledgeling bird looks ready to try its first short flights.