adjective
- born in a helpless condition requiring care and feeding by parents
Usage: biology; zoology
Examples
- Most songbirds are altricial, hatching blind and featherless.
- Altricial species require extensive parental care after birth.
- Human babies are highly altricial compared to many mammals.
- The nest contained three altricial chicks that couldn’t yet fly.
- Robins are altricial birds that depend on their parents for weeks.
- Unlike precocial ducks, altricial birds need constant feeding.