Vogelbabys bekommen Futter im Tierschutzteam

What does “hungrige Schnäbel stopfen” mean in German?

In this clip, wildlife rescuers stopfen hungrige Schnäbel — literally “stuff hungry beaks” — to describe feeding rescued baby birds who need constant, forceful feeding to survive. Stopfen means to stuff or cram something in, and it’s the same verb used for force-feeding geese for foie gras (eine Gans stopfen) or darning a sock (Socken stopfen).

The idiom generalizes to people too: hungrige Mäuler stopfen (“to stuff hungry mouths”) is a common way to talk about having many mouths to feed, especially a big family. The image is the same whether the mouth belongs to a nestling or a teenager — someone waiting, beak or hand open, for the next helping.