Feature:
Fun Facts About Birds
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1. Birds have hollow bones.
Hollow bones can lighten a bird’s weight to make flying easier...bird bones have greater bone density than mammal bones, which makes them tougher. They also often have a twisted or curved shape for increased strength when pushed during flight.
2. Some birds can fly higher than Mount Everest.
The Ruppell’s griffon vulture flies the highest of any bird on record. It can reach altitudes of 36,000 feet...Bar-headed geese...fly over the Himalaya mountains as part of their annual migrations & have been found at heights over 21,000 feet.
3. Crocodiles are the closest living relatives of birds.
Both birds & crocodiles evolved from the same group of reptiles that first appeared over 200 million years ago. These reptiles went on to become the dinosaurs...
4. Birds don’t pee.
...birds don’t have bladders. Instead of producing & storing urine, birds produce a white, pasty substance that’s excreted with their poop. That’s why you’ll often see bird droppings that have black & white streaks mixed together.
5. Birds communicate using sound & color.
Parrots... use their body posture & colorful feathers to relay information...Their ability to mimic human words is also famous...
6. The largest bird in the world is the ostrich.
Male ostriches can get up to 9 ft...tall & weigh up to 350 lbs... They also have the largest eyes compared to any other land animals. An ostrich’s eyes are even larger than its brain.
7. Baby birds are either precocial or altricial.
Precocial bird chicks, meaning ‘ripened beforehand’, can get up & run very soon after birth... Altricial chicks... hatch blind, naked & helpless, such as robins, blue jays & eagles. The hatchlings must wait in their nests & rely completely on their parents for food & protection.
8. Birds don’t always come in flocks.
...A group of crows is called a murder, congress or horde. Finches come in charms, penguins in huddles & geese in gaggles. The most creative may be a pandemonium of parrots or a flamboyance of flamingos.
9. Most bird species are monogamous.
To birds, monogamy might mean staying exclusively with one partner for the duration of a mating season, then parting ways & finding different mates the next year. But some birds commit for life. For instance, a flamingo pair can stay together for over 50 years.
10. Some birds can sleep in the air.
The sooty tern is known for taking 1-2 second naps while flying. This allows the tern to stay in the air for extended periods. It lives over tropical waters...but it can’t land on the water because its feathers are not water-repellent. Sooty terns spend the majority of their lives in the air, only touching down occasionally to nest & raise their young.
11. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards & sideways.
...Hummingbirds stroke their wings forwards & backwards, which gives them their distinctive agility in the air. Hummingbirds also have the smallest eggs of any birds...
12. Some birds are poisonous.
Pitohuis are a common type of bird in New Guinea, & they’re the only known type of poisonous birds in the world. At least 3 species of pitohui have a neurotoxic poison in their skin & feathers. Researchers believe the birds don’t produce the poison themselves, it comes from a toxin-producing beetle in their diet.”
Zoe Blarowski
January 25/2017
care2.com
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Memorial
Annabelle (July 16/2001)
My brave little girl was such a good sport on the long train trip from Halifax to Montreal. I was so very proud of her. Adrian & I loved her very much & always will. RIP sweet little one.
