The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold

[james_davis_nicoll]

Efforts to decontaminate a radioactive zone on Barrayar produce an entirely unexpected discovery.

The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold

Comments

[armiphlage]

With respect to wild chickens and flight:

Having worked on a poultry farm, I can attest that domesticated egg-laying chickens can fly short distances. They don't like to, as they can run faster and with less effort. Flight is mostly reserved to get up into rafters where underpaid, overworked farmhands can't catch them, or to get onto the roof of a vehicle so they can scratch the paint and poop all over it.

Their wild ancestor/cousin also rarely flies, spending most of its time foraging at ground level.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl

[patrick_morris_miller]

Similar roadrunners. They can fly, they'd just rather not.

[scott_sanford]

I had almost forgotten about it but yeah, chicken flight was a recurring question on Usenet. (If there was a reason I've forgotten it. Sometimes subjects just keep coming up.) Your answer aligns with what I recall of most of the reasonable answers.

Domestic chickens are clearly at the borderline of losing flight; they technically can but mostly don't and aren't very good at it.

[magedragonfire]

They can also fly over fences to explore other backyards, where they might get pounced upon and mauled by a normally very gentle, friendly dog.

…My childhood neighbours kept a couple of fancy chickens as pets, until The Incident.