"Excuse me?" The bird swiveled his head to look at the turtle again. His expression was still hard to read (because bird) but his eyes looked somewhat incredulous. Then maybe there was a touch of disdain there.

"Chicks. Not girls, chicks." Beat. "Children." How does a person look at a talking bird and think 'chicks' refers to women? "Do you want me to call them hatchlings?" Because that was the appropriate vocabulary for baby turtles, he supposed.