Birds

The fastest bird in the world is the Asian spine-tailed swift. In a level flight, it can reach a speed of 102 miles per hour (170 kilometers per hour).

Ninety percent of all species that have become extinct have been birds. (Source: Useless Trivia)

Every bird must eat at least half its own weight in food each day to survive. Young birds need even more. A young robin, for example, eats as much as 14 feet of earthworms a day.

SCIENTISTS TEST BIRD-BRAIN THEORY
Birds may not be so bird brained after all, according to scientists at Western Australia's Curtin University who are studying the gray matter of the chicken in order to better understand the human brain. Professor Charles Watson says rather than being small and simple, birds' brains were as sophisticated and complex as those of most mammals, the Sunday Australian Times reports. "In fact, it's been claimed that parrots are more intelligent than all mammals except monkeys, apes and humans," he says. "Although there are distinctive features of the chicken brain, there are also a vast number of features similar to the mammalian brain and it is these correspondences that are potentially very interesting to us." Watson and his colleagues have been mapping a comprehensive atlas of a chicken's brain they hope will help unlock some of the mysteries inside the heads of humans. Watson says studies of this kind are important because, like travelers, researchers required maps of the brain in order to navigate and understand its functions. More than 20 years ago, Watson and others published an atlas of the rat brain, which has been described as the most cited book in neuroscience.

How do birds fly forward if their wings flap up and down?
Birds don't fly by flapping their wings up and down. The motion is more forward and backward, like a figure eight on its side.

How fast does a bird have to be going to fly?
The average minimal speed of birds in order to remain aloft in flight is reported to be about 16 and one-half feet per second, or about 11 miles per hour.

How do birds know how to do that?
One way birds learn is by trial and error. Scientists have discovered that many of their learned motor patterns are linked to appetite. For instance, young doves must learn to drink water. The pecking of domestic chicks improves about 30 hours after hatching. They snatch up a grain with increased efficiency. Simple trial-and-error learning is also believed to be very important in birds' nest-building.

WHY DO BIRDS SING?
In most species of songbirds, only male birds sing, and for only two reasons: to protect territory and to attract a mate.

BIRDS REMEMBER THEIR CRIMINAL PAST
Thieving scrub jays watch their backs more than honest birds, according to research published in this week's edition of the journal Nature. N. J. Emery and N. S. Clayton of the University of Cambridge, U.K., report that the birds modify the way that they hide food according to their previous experience as a pilferer of others' food stores. If they are watched caching food by another jay, birds with a criminal past subsequently move their store to a new location. Those more innocent of the ways of the world are far more trusting: they leave their food in their original hiding place, even if they know another bird has seen them put it there. "To our knowledge this is the first experimental demonstration that a non-human animal can remember the social context of specific past events and adjust their present behavior to avoid potentially detrimental consequences in the future," the authors wrote.How clear is a bird's eye view?
Pretty clear - added to the fact that they can get a significant aerial perspective, a bird sees everything at once in total focus. Whereas the human eye is globular and must adjust to varying distances, the bird's eye is flat and can take in everything at once in a single glance.

What bird leads other animals to food?
The greater honey guide bird of eastern Africa (Indicator indicator) loves to eat honey but it can't open bees' nests by itself. So when it finds one, it goes looking for an animal called a ratel, or honey badger (Mellivora capensis).

The bird calls out loudly, attracting the badger's attention. Then it flies toward the bees' nest, making sure the badger is following. On arriving, the badger tears open the nest with its strong claws, and badger and bird both feast on honey, beeswax, and bee larvae.

The honey guide bird also knows about another species of creature that loves honey: humans! African tribesmen follow the birds for the same reasons.

The scientific name of the honey badger starts with "mell-", a Latin root meaning "honey".

Do birds re-use their nests?
Some do - On the Baja coast, osprey couples return to the same nests year after year. These birds rebuild their old nest, carefully repairing any damage caused by winds, rain, and age. After years of rebuilding, some osprey nests can reach heights of 4 feet.

MALE BIRD PLUMAGE, PROMISCUITY LINKED
A new study from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee suggests that males in promiscuous bird species tend to be bigger and flashier than their monogamous counterparts. The study looked at more than 1,000 bird species, and backs one of Charles Darwin's theories. He suggested that showier males would get more attention from females and mate more often and were, therefore, more likely to pass on their brighter feathers and longer tails. Flashy females nursing their young attract predators, though, so duller females tend to survive and mate. Since most birds are apparently faithful to one mate, biologists have had trouble finding evidence to support this. However, DNA fingerprinting paternity tests revealed that roughly 20 percent of the broods of even supposedly monogamous bird species were fathered by a male other than the presumed father. The researchers found that among the more promiscuous species there were greater differences across the sexes in terms of body mass, feather color and patterns, and wing and tail length. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Evolution.

Do some birds really have magnetic personalities?
Pigeons and hummingbirds have tiny magnetic particles in their heads that respond to the Earth's magnetic fields and are used for navigation.

Why do birds fly in a "V" formation?
Have you seen seagulls or migrating geese flying in a "V"? Through evolution, flocks of birds have spontaneously developed the best instinctive strategy for long-distance flight as a group. Freeway drivers may be familiar with the "wake effect" that reduces gas usage when one follows just behind and to one side of a large truck. The "V" flying flock takes advantage of exactly the same effect. By flying in a "V", birds minimize the energy used by the whole flock to get where it's going. Recent research shows that even the leader of the "V" benefits from the formation. A "V" flock of 25 birds can travel 70% farther than an unformed flock, and it also flies faster.r than humans. They can see a 1 mm long insect from a treetop 18 meters above ground.

CHICKENS

Hens do not have to be impregnated to lay eggs. The rooster is necessary only to fertilize the egg.

In one year, hens in America lay enough eggs to encircle the globe a hundred times.

CROWS

LARCENY COMES NATURALLY TO CROWS
Crows and ravens are depicted as being clever and tricky animals in countless stories and legends and these characterizations apparently are right on the mark, a pair of University of Washington researchers write in the journal Animal Behavior. They have found a species of crow that is constantly looking for opportunities to steal food from other members of its flock. In fact, the behavior is so prevalent among Northwestern crows, Corvus caurinus, that it shatters the long-held belief of some animal behaviorists that the birds primarily are looking for predators when they scan their surroundings. "Crows are social, highly cognitive birds whose intelligence is up there with dogs," say Renee Robinette Ha and James Ha. "Crow vigilance is based on the opportunity to steal food, the over-riding factor in their vigilance behavior is 'who's got food I can steal,' not 'is there a predator lurking around.'" It's been dogma that crows are vigilant for predators, but they really are vigilant about each other," they add.

DODOS
WHEN DID THE DODO BECOME EXTINCT?
Not until 1681, and mainly because humans and animals ate the remaining eggs. The dodo first found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, was the size of a very large turkey. It was slow and defenseless, save for its hooked beak. To complicate matters, it did not reproduce well, as the female laid only one egg each year. The death knell came in the 1600s, however, when Dutch colonists on Mauritius found the eggs palatable. Other animals also found them edible, and soon the dodo was gone.

DODOS WERE CLOSELY RELATED TO PIGEONS
The dodo bird was essentially an overgrown pigeon, genetic researchers say. The dodo was a large, flightless bird that went extinct on an island east of Madagascar as a result of the encroachment of humans and accompanying rats and pigs. In the March 1 issue of Science, Beth A. Shapiro, Alan Cooper and their colleagues at the University of Oxford and the Natural History Museum in London reported their comparison of genetic sequences from the dodo, its close relative the solitaire bird, and 37 other species of pigeons and doves. The study showed that the dodo and solitaire are not on the fringe of this group, but fall right in the middle of it genetically. The closest living relatives to the birds are the Nicobar pigeons of Southeast Asia, the crowned pigeons of New Guinea and the toothbilled pigeons of Samoa. The solitaire and dodo probably separated from other pigeons about 42 million years ago, after they emigrated to the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. "In an island situation, the birds that put on the most mass, and eat the most, can dominate in terms of mating and territory," Cooper told the New York Times. But being big and flightless made it difficult for them to escape the effects of humans.

DUCKS
Ducks will lay eggs only in the early morning.

EAGLES

Why is the Eagle the national emblem of the United States?
In 1782, Congress selected the bald eagle as the emblem of the newly formed United States, because it symbolized courage and might, and because it was indigenous only to the United States and to Canada.

The national seal depicts the bald eagle with its wings spread, with one claw clutching an olive branch, and the other claw grasping arrows. The eagle, however, strikes different poses on other national depictions. The bald eagle owes its name to the early American colonists, and is bald in name only. As the white-headed American eagle differed from the European gray eagle, the colonists used their word for white, which translated into bald, in describing it. Unfortunately for the eagle, the literal translation, bald-headed, stuck like a toupee.

Since ancient times, men have identified themselves with the eagle, because it creates an impression of majesty and of power while in flight. As early as 5,000 years ago, ancient Sumerians chose the eagle, in spread eagle form, as their emblem symbolizing their power. Ancient Romans followed suit, as did Emperor Charlemagne, and finally Napoleon. No doubt, Congress considered the eagle's historical pedigree as being the animal representing a nation's power, when selecting it to be the national emblem of the United States.

“ELEPHANT” BIRD
What were the largest birds that ever lived?
When humans first came to the island of Madagascar around 600 AD, it was home to the largest birds that ever lived, the giant, flightless elephant birds (Aepyornis maximus). The last one probably died about 800 years ago.

The liquid capacity of one elephant bird egg was about two gallons (7.5 liters), 180 times that of a chicken egg, possibly making it the largest single cell ever. An adult bird probably weighed about one thousand pounds (450 kilograms). Like their living cousins the ostriches, they were running birds with thick, muscular legs and vestigial wings.

The elephant birds were among many species of large animals that disappeared from Madagascar after humans arrived. Today, the island's animal life is much reduced. Destruction of habitat has eliminated many species, and many more are threatened.

FLAMINGOS
Flamingos are not naturally pink. They get their color from their food, tiny blue-green algae that turn pink during digestion.

GEESE

A rarity in birds, geese are among the very few in which the family stays together at the end of the breeding season. Parents and the young raised during the summer establish strong family bonds and do not break up for about a year. In the fall, geese migrate in flocks that contain other family units, and each family stays together on the wintering grounds.

HUMMINGBIRDS
Hummingbirds are the smallest birds - so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis. A hummingbird weighs less than a penny. (Source: Encarta.com)

Hummingbirds live an average of 5 years. They are hatched from eggs that are so small that a penny would cover three of them. Hummingbirds are usually hatched in pairs in nests that average 1.5 inches in diameter.

The only bird that can fly backwards is the hummingbird, which can also fly up, down, and sideways, as well as hovering in one place. These tiny, fast fliers have wing muscles that make up about one third of their entire mass. Hummingbirds have evolved a flying style that resembles that of bumblebees and hawk moths. Like the insects, the motion of their wings resembles the movement of a helicopter's rotors, but instead of rotating around they trace a flattened, sideways figure-8. The wings' internal joints are fused together and the only bending happens at the bird's shoulders. To fly backwards, sideways, or forward a hummingbird slightly changes the angle at which the wings are held. When hovering in place the bird makes extremely tiny adjustments to compensate for changing breezes. They can also fly straight up or enter a power dive at up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph).

KIWIS
Kiwis have the largest egg-to-body weight ratio of any bird!

A kiwi the size of a chicken can lay an egg almost as large as that of an ostrich. Kiwi eggs average about 20% of the female's body weight (a five pound kiwi will lay an egg that weighs more than a pound), compared with 2% for an ostrich.

Female kiwis are larger than the males, and they generally live in pairs and mate for life. Kiwis are named after the shrill male's cry of "kee-wee, kee-wee".

MOAs
Before humans came to New Zealand, there were eleven species of the flightless birds called moa living on the islands. They ranged from the size of a turkey up to the largest moa, Dinornis giganteus, whose females could reach as high as eleven feet (3.4 meters) by extending their long necks, although usually they kept their heads near the ground.

Most species of moas were herbivores, most likely solitary or paired forest dwellers that traveled on frequently used trails and communicated by sound. There were no large predators on the islands, so the birds could grow large and slow, grazing on the abundant vegetation.

Moas were ratites, part of a family that also includes ostriches, rheas, emus, cassowaries, kiwis, and the heaviest birds in the world, Madagascar's magnificent elephant birds. Like the elephant birds, moas died out after humans arrived, most likely because they were hunted to extinction. There are efforts underway to sequence moa DNA from their remains, so they might come back some day.

More about the moa:

New Zealand's Famous Moas
"Moa" is the generic, Maori word for a group of flightless birds which existed in New Zealand until about the time of arrival of the Europeans. Their bones are common in Quaternary swamps, caves, and archaeological sites.

Up to 2.5m in height the moa, dinornis maximus, must have been one of the most spectacular sights in early times. From the time of the first Maori settlements in and around 700 A.D. to shortly before European settlement, the moa provided a plentiful supply of food.

The largest specimens may have weighed over 250 kg (550 lbs). They had massive hind limbs, long necks, and small heads. The wings were reduced to tiny vestiges, and the breastbone, or sternum, was flattened, lacking the downward-projecting keel of flying birds.

Their skeletal structure indicates that moas are perhaps most closely related to the small, flightless kiwis of New Zealand. Crop remains show that moas ate grasses, leaves, berries, and seeds.

When the Maoris colonized New Zealand about a thousand years ago, they developed a culture heavily dependent on moa hunting. This may have been a factor in the decline of the birds. It is uncertain when the last moas became extinct. They existed at least until the 1600's and a few eyewitness reports suggest that at least one small species may have survived until the 1800's.

Moas, flightless birds resembling ostriches probably became extinct because of hunting and the clearing of vegetation on which they fed. Native to New Zealand, they were hunted by the Maoris for food, and their bones and eggshells were used as tools and ornaments.

The Moa Foot
Individual moa bones are often bound poking out of the gully walls with a leg bone sticking out at nearly right angles. At the end of that bone was another, the lowest leg bone, and beyond that, all the toe bones. OSTRICH
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. (Source: Bizzarro)

OSTRICH

An African ostrich egg weighs about 30 lbs. A 200 lb man can stand on it without breaking it.

OWLS
Screech owls (Otus species) commonly place blind snakes (Leptotyphlops dulcis or related species) in their own nests while their hatchlings are being raised. The snake, which normally lives underground, does not bother the chicks and seems to survive nicely. Why do owls put snakes in their own nests? No one knows for sure, but the snakes in the nests live on small arthropods (fleas, mites, and other nest parasites), and chicks reared with the snakes seem to do better than those without. Since the owls must go to some trouble to find the tiny burrowing reptiles, it must be worthwhile to have them around.

PARROTS

Boredom can lead to madness in parrots. When caged by themselves and neglected for long periods of time, these intelligent, sociable birds can easily become mentally ill. Many inflict wounds upon themselves, develop strange tics, and rip out their own feathers. The birds need constant interaction, affection, and mental stimulation; some bird authorities have determined that some parrot breeds have the mental abilities of a 5-year-old human child. Should a neglected parrot go mad, there is little that can be done to restore it to normalcy. In England, there are "mental institutions" for such unfortunate creatures.

A parrot's feet are designed with four toes--two pointing forward and two pointing backward. All other birds have feet with three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward. This design enables the parrot to climb trees, hang upside down, and grip food with its feet to feed itself more easily.

PENGUINS
There are no penguins at the North Pole. In fact, there are no penguins anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (outside of zoos). All 17 varieties of the bird are found below the equator, primarily in Antarctica.

While the bones of most airborne birds are hollow for lightness, penguins are endowed with solid bones for ballast when they dive, sometimes to 850 feet or more.

The penguin is the only bird that can swim, but not fly. It is also the only bird that walks upright.

PIGEONS
The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon. If no other pigeon is available, her own reflection in a mirror will suffice.

According to zoology experts, there is no real difference between doves and pigeons. The choice of name rests almost altogether on custom and geography, although the smaller of the species is, more often than not, called a dove.

SEA BIRDS
What's the fastest sea bird?
Frigate birds are not only the fastest, but also the most acrobatic ocean-going birds. Able to fly as fast as 93 miles per hour, they can steal food from other birds while in flight, and snatch flying fish right out of the air. Specialized for flight, they are unable to land on the water and are awkward on land. They build crude nests under low bushes, and lay only one egg at a time.

The male frigate bird has a bright red pouch on the underside of his neck, which he can inflate to attract females. When inflated, the pouch can be seen for great distances.

Can sea birds drink sea water?
At least one can - The albatross drinks sea water. It has a special desalinization apparatus that strains out and excretes all excess salt.

Do sea birds have a gag reflex?
Not really - Many seabirds that swallow fishes too large for immediate digestion go about with the esophagus filled. Apparently without discomfort, the tail of the fish sticks out of the bird's mouth.

TURKEYS
Why do turkeys have dark and white meat?
In a turkey the active muscles such as the legs store a lot of oxygen and become dark, while less active muscles like the breast remain white.

How bright is a turkey?
A newborn turkey chick has to be taught to eat, or it will starve. Breeders spread feed underfoot, hoping the little ones will peck at it and get the idea. Turkeys tend to look up with their mouths open during rainstorms. As a result, many drown.

Can turkeys actually fly?
Yes and, as any hunter will tell you, pretty darned fast. While domesticated turkeys (farm-raised) cannot fly, wild turkeys can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.

WOODCOCKS
The American woodcock, with its eyes placed toward the top of its head, can see backward and upward, and forward and upward, with binocular vision and, laterally, almost 180 degrees with each eye.

WOODPECKERS
How do woodpeckers avoid brain damage?
Recent research using high-speed films of acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) shows that their heads can endure up to 1200 gravities of force when the beak hits the wood. Despite this force, their brains do not suffer damage.

The woodpecker's brain is tightly packed into a capsule of dense but spongy bone tissue, which absorbs some of the force of sudden shocks to the outside of the brain case. There is very little fluid surrounding the brain, so it is not free to jerk around. In addition, there are special muscles in the woodpecker's head that contract at just the right moment to absorb still more of the shock. There are also support structures that pass around the back of the skull, starting near the base of the tongue.

The woodpecker's brain is not the only part of the bird's head that must be protected. If it didn't close its eyes just before each peck, they would fly clear out of their sockets.