30 Fascinating Facts About Birds That You love To Know(Part 2)(Interestingawesome.blogspot.com)
Birds Are every where. They are amazing creatures and envied
by many others including humans for their ability to fly. Many birds kept as
pets, including doves, parakeets, and lovebirds, enjoy living in pairs for
companionship. They are quite well known for their Navigational skills all
around the world. But there's more to them. For science lovers, Birds (Aves )
are a group of endothermic vertebrates , characterized by feathers ,toothless
beaked jaws, the laying of hard shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four
chambered heart , and a lightweight but strong skeleton . Birds live worldwide
and range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m (9 ft)
ostrich . They are every where. Here are some amusing facts about different
species of bird in the world.
In one of my previous
post, 40 awesome facts about bird that you love to know, I hinted about the
second part of that post. So this is it. Here are some more amazing facts about
different species of bird in the world.
Read More,
- There are some additional air sacs attached to the lungs of the birds. So they can receive maximum oxygen during breathing.
- Birds save energy by flying in a "V" formation.
- The Australian pelican has the longest bill of any bird in the world. It is nearly 2 feet (0.5 m) in length. The sword-billed hummingbird, with its 3.9-inch (10 cm) bill, is the only bird with a bill that’s longer than its body.
- About 3 new species of bird are discovered each year.
- Famous birds include Ba in Egyptian mythology, Bar Juchne in the Talmud, The Cu Bird in Mexican folklore, the Firebird in Native American mythologies, Harpies in Greek mythology, the Phoenix in Egyptian mythology, Quetzalcoatl in Aztec mythology, and the Raven in Native American religions.
- In order to scare away predators, Giant petrels, a type of seabird, throw up all over the intruder.
- Some birds have been known to put ants into their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid, which kills parasites.
- Birds are every where. One of the place on Earth that birds haven't managed to colonize is the deepest ocean.
- A swallow spends the first four years of its life in the air after it leaves the nest.
- Parrots are well known as mimics of human speech. But did you know that Toucans, if kept in captivity, can also pick up quite a wide vocabulary? But Toucans don't make good pets. They require very specialist care and lots of space to live happily in captivity.
- Did you know that parrots can also learn to count, recognize and name different colors and shapes and even be trained to perform simple household chores?
- Scientists believe that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs.Based on fossil and biological evidence, most scientists accept that birds are a specialised subgroup of theropod dinosaurs ,and more specifically, they are members of Maniraptora , a group of theropods which includes dromaeosaurs and oviraptorids , among others.
- Famous birds in literature include the Albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Archimedes in The Once and Future King, Chicken Little, Chanticleer in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Fawkes and Hedwig in Harry Potter, Mother Goose, the Raven in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” Owl in Winnie the Pooh, Thorondor (the king of eagles) in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and The Ugly Duckling.
- In the continental U.S. alone, between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds are killed by cats annually.
- A group of larks is called an exaltation, a group of chickens is called a peep, a group of geese is called a gaggle, a group of ravens is called a murder, and a group of owls is called a parliament. Awesome, isn't it? Always hmmm,hmmmm. :D
- Unlike most birds that sing, a woodpecker will drum its beak against a tree. Other woodpeckers can identify which bird it is by the sound of the drumming.
- Chickens have over 200 distinct noises they make for communicating.
- When it comes to birds, the males tend to have the more glamorous feather shape, coloration, songs, and dances. Female birds choose their mate based on how attractive they find them.
- amous birds in cartoons, comics, and films include Big Bird in Sesame Street, Buzz Buzzard in Woody Woodpecker, Disney’s Darkwing Duck, Footloops cereal’s Toucan Sam, Woodstock in the Peanuts comic strip, Woody Woodpecker, and Iago in Aladdin.
- The chicks of large bird species often take the longest to hatch. Emu chicks, for example, take 60 days to hatch. Small songbirds take just 2 weeks.
- The Japanese crested ibis is one of the rarest birds in the world. Probably fewer than 50 crested ibises are alive today.
- Falconry was developed more than 4,000 years ago in eastern and central Asia. Birds were used because they could kill animals beyond the range of a hunter’s weapon. Genghis Khan reportedly had 10,000 falconers.
- Archaeopteryx was the first fossil to display both clearly traditional reptilian characteristics: teeth, clawed fingers, and a long, lizard-like tail, as well as wings with flight feathers similar to those of modern birds. It is not considered a direct ancestor of birds, though it is possibly closely related to the true ancestor.
- A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs, and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs.
- Social weaver birds live in huge communal nests that look like a huge haystack spread across a treetop. Some nests can weigh a few tons, have over 400 birds living in them, and may be 100 years old.
- While most male birds do not have a penis, the Argentine Lake Duck’s penis can extend 17", the longest of any bird known. The duck itself is only about 16 inches tall. The base of the penis is covered with coarse spines, and the tip is soft and brush-like, perhaps to clean sperm that may have been deposited in the female’s oviduct by another suitor. When not in use, the corkscrew shaped penis retracts into the duck’s abdomen.
- Gentoo Penguins are the fastest swimming birds, reaching speeds of 22 mph (36 kph). Emperor Penguins can stay under water for up to 18 minutes
- The Sooty Tern spends more time in the air than any other bird. It takes off over the ocean and flies for at least 3 years without settling on water or land. Swifts also spend most of their lives in the air. They can even sleep in the air by gliding on air currents with their wings outstretched.
- The Bald Eagle builds the largest tree nest of all birds, measuring about 9.5 ft. (2.9 m) across. The largest nest ever found was nearly 10 ft. wide and weighed close to 3 tons.
- Superb Lyrebirds are really superb because they use their calls to imitate over 20 bird calls.
Read More,
Again, this is the
2nd part of the post 40 Awesome Facts About That You Love To Know. You can read the
previous one by above link.
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