Wild Birds

The beauty of birds: Interesting Facts

DID YOU KNOW?
The strike of the eagle talon is so powerful that its force is twice that of a rifle bullet.  
NINE (9) egg yolks have been found in ONE (1) chicken egg  
The Bird with the Longest Beak is … … the Australian Pelican‘s beak is up to 18.5 inches (47 cm) long.  
Gone Fishing! Green Herons sometimes drop live insects, berries, or other objects onto the water’s surface to attract fish. When an inquisitive fish appears, the heron grabs it with a quick thrust of the bill!  
HEAVIEST FLYER The heaviest flying bird is the Great Bustard weighing as much as a six (6)-year old human child  
ODDEST FLYERS The only
backwards and sideways flyer
is the hummingbird !
 
Longest Migration The arctic tern makes the longest migration each year, flying 20,000 to 25,000 miles (32000-40000 km) each year from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again.  
The fastest flying birds include: the peregrine falcon, clocked at 90 mph (145 kph). There are even accounts of these raptors diving at speeds up to 200 mph (320 kph).. the spine-tailed swift, about 90-100 mph (145-160 kph) the harpy eagle – 37-50 mph (60-80 kph) champion racing pigeons fly up to 53 mph (85 kph) mallard duck – 65 mph (105 kph) Peregrine Falcon
The smallest bird in the world is the bee hummingbird which measures 2.5 inches in length (6.2 cm) and weighs only 0.06 oz (1.6 g).  
The Northern Jacanas appear to be walking on water — and because of that are also known as the “Jesus Birds”  
Meet the only poisonous birds in the world!  
“Will You Be My Valentine?” Male Frigatebirds have inflatable red-colored throat pouches, which they inflate to attract females during the mating season.  
Turkeys can have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys dropped dead because of heart attacks.  
The fastest bird in the world is the Peregrine Falcon, which can reach speeds in excess of two hundred miles per hour.  
The world’s smallest owl is the elf owl which weighs 1.5 ounces and is the size of a sparrow.  
Do you know
the bird without a voice?
 
Vampire Finches drink the blood of other birds and their own deads. Such a behaviour has evolved from eating parasitic insects in the bird’s plumage.  
Vultures can soar for hours without one beat of their wings Vultures are said to drop LIVE turtoises from great heights to crack them open. Griffon Vulture
A chicken with red earlobes tends to produce brown eggs, and a chicken with white earlobes produces white eggs. Chicken
Grackles can imitate human speech better than parrots Grackles
A hawk’s vision is so good that it can see a mouse from a height of one mile. Hawk Vision
Nowhere else but in the westernmost islands of Fernandina (Narborough) and Isabela (Albemarle) lives the world’s only flightless cormorant, Nannopterum harrisi. This bird with its useless, drooping wings appears awkward on land as it plods along on big webbed feet, spreading its wings for balance. Before attempting to fish underwater the slightly built bird must first swallow pebbles to weigh itself down, then like a daredevil it plunges madly into the water feet first, diving to great depths to satisfy its hunger.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gordon Ramel

Gordon is an ecologist with two degrees from Exeter University. He's also a teacher, a poet and the owner of 1,152 books. Oh - and he wrote this website.

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