Know 56 facts About Birds

Know 56 facts About Birds

1)  
Birds are one of the six basic groups of animals.

2)  
Research currently supports the view that birds evolved from a group of dinosaurs known as theropods during the Mesozoic Era.

3)  
There are 9,865 species of birds alive today, according to the IUCN.

4)  
All birds have feathers and birds are the only animals who got feathers. if an animal has feathers, then it is a bird.

5)  
The world's only wingless bird is the kiwi of New Zealand.

6)  
Falcons can swoop at over 200 mph.

7)  
The Ostrich is the largest bird in the world. It also lays the largest eggs and has the fastest maximum running speed (97 kph).

8)  
Adult ostriches weigh between 220 and 350 pounds and measure between 7 and 9 1/4 feet in height.

9)  
Penguins, ostriches, and dodo birds are all birds that do not fly.

10)  
The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but cannot fly.

11)  
Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.

12)  
The only known poisonous bird in the world is the hooded pitohui of Papua, New Guinea. The poison is found in its skin and feathers.

13)  
There are over 350 species of parrots in the world.

14)  
The smallest parrot species are the Pygmy Parrots, who average at about 8cm in length.

15)  
Some parrot species must fly over 500 miles a day in the wild to forage for food.

16)  
The largest of the parrot species is the Hyacinth Macaw, which can grow to a length of about 40 inches from the beak to the end of the tailfeathers.

17)  
The only species of parrot that builds a nest is the Quaker Parrot. The Quakers link their nests together to form structures akin to "bird condominiums". These nests can reach weights greater than 200 lbs.

18)  
Amazon Parrot are widely noted for their talking abilities and clarity, Amazon Parrots have another trick up their sleeves -- they can produce shrill screams in frequencies that seem to cut right through human ears

19)  
A parrot’s vocabulary is generally no more than 20 words.

20)  
The oldest bird was known as an Archaeopteryx and lived about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. It was the size of a raven, was covered with feathers, and had wings. A total of ten Archaeopteryx fossil specimens have been unearthed over the years. All of these fossils were recovered from the limestone deposits in quaries near Solnhofen, Germany. The first Archaeopteryx skeleton, now known as the "London Specimen", was discovered in 1861.

21)  
All birds reproduce by laying eggs.

22)  
The most yolks ever found in a single chicken's egg is nine.

23)  
An ostrich egg needs to be boiled for 2 hours to get a hard-boiled egg.

24)  
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

25)  
The Royal Albatross' eggs take 79 days to hatch.

26)  
The egg of the hummingbird is the world's smallest bird's egg; the egg of the ostrich, the world's largest.

27)  
The now-extinct elephant bird of Madagascar laid an egg that weighed 27 pounds.

28)  
The Bee Hummingbird is the smallest living bird in the world, with a length of just 5 cm (2 in).

29)  
When active, a humming bird breathes around 300-500 times every minute. The heart of a humming bird makes up for around 20% of the body volume. The heartbeat ranges from 30-1500 per minute, depending on the specie and the activity.

30)  
Most birds sit on their eggs to incubate them, but not this common scrub hen. Instead, it uses the heat from volcanoes to keep its eggs warm. It buries its eggs in the side of a volcano on the pacific island where it lives.

31)  
A bird's normal body temperature is usually 7-8 degrees hotter than a human's

32)  
A bird's heart beats 400 times per minute while resting and up to 1000 beats per minute while flying.

33)  
The American turkey vulture helps human engineers detect cracked or broken underground fuel pipes. The leaking fuel smells like vulture food (they eat carrion), and the clustered birds show repair people where the lines need fixing.

34)  
Some bird species are intelligent enough to create and use tools.

35)  
Around 20% of bird species migrate long distances every year.

36)  
Many species of birds migrate to high latitudes to breed during the spring and summer. Then during the fall and winter months they migrate to regions of lower latitude. Many species follow similar routes each year when migrating. These routes are referred to as migratory flyways.

37)  
Migratory bird species fly in formation to conserve energy -- much like driving in a larger vehicle's slipstream can reduce the amount of gas you require.

38)  
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.

39)  
Birds do not have teeth. Instead they have bills that are made of the protein keratin. Bird bills come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are adapted to the particular diet of each species.

40)  
A Woodpecker can peck 20 times per second.

41)  
Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.

42)  
Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue.

43)  
Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their eyes.

44)  
The owl can catch a mouse in utter darkness, guided only by tiny sounds made by its prey.

45)  
The eyes of the chameleon can move independently & can see in two different directions at the same time.

46)  
The Chameleon's tongue is as long as its body.

47)  
When danger threatens, an owl makes itself look as large and firece as possible, by fluffing out its feathers, spreading its wings and opening its eyes wide.

48)  
According to the BBC, the oldest parrot on record is a Blue and Gold Macaw named Charlie. Charlie is reported to have been owned by Winston Churchill, and is believed to be 104 years of age.

49)  
75% of wild birds die before they are 6 months old.

50)  
Social weaver birds live in Africa. In the breeding season, many pairs come together to build their nests. They build one huge domed roof of grass and straw. Then each pair builds its own nest under the roof, each with its own entrance.

51)  
Flamingos are pink because shrimp is one of their main sources of food. Flamingos are not naturally pink. They get their color from their food tiny green algae that turn pink during digestion.

52)  
The peacock male is called a male and the female, a peahen.

53)  
Some male songbirds sing more than 2000 times each day.

54)  
science has yet to definitively prove that all bird species have a sense of smell.


55.
How to know identify male sparrow from a female sparrow
Male and female both Sparrows are brown in color , with white and black on the back and sides. Both have a whitish front.
But male sparrow got a black patch on its throat.
Male Sparrow =  black patch on its throat

56.
Bird Koel never builds home she is too intelligent mother koel searches for crow’s nest and when the crow is not around she lays her eggs in the nest and later crow hatches those eggs along with their own eggs.
Eggs of crow and koel both are similar in size, shape and color.
Koel eggs are pale grey with brown speckles  and eggs of crow are  pale bluish green with brown markings.

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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Tags – Facts About Birds