Nest predation is one of the most common reasons that breeding attempts fail, and predators can eavesdrop on begging babies to locate nests. Plus, the nestlings make a lot of mistakes; especially if it’s been a while since the last feeding, they’ll start begging as soon as something comes near the nest.

So why do they do this? Here are a few of the ideas:

1. “I need food the most!”: nestlings that are hungry will beg more, while those that aren’t will beg less, so the parent distributes food based on need. This works evolutionarily because if close relatives (i.e. siblings) survive then more of your shared genes are also passed on.
2. “Give me the food, not them!”: each bird is more related to itself than a sibling, right? So why let them get the food? In this scenario, begging is simply a way to get food at every opportunity even if it doesn’t need it.
3. “Feed me, I’m clearly the best!”: the nestling that can beg vigorously for the longest time is a better investment for the parent because it’s more likely to survive. So why not bet on the winner?

A study by Caro et al. (2016) found that nestlings would beg more honestly when they were alone in the nest, and other studies have shown that begging may not be all that energetically costly (so it probably isn’t a good signal of quality). So while the jury is still out and it’s likely a mix of a lot of factors, a lot of it seems to depend on the brood size. Having lots of other begging birds makes things more competitive, so chicks are less likely to be honest with their begging!