Curiosities about birds: 13 very special and very particular birds

 Curiosities about birds: 15 very special and very particular birds

From hummingbirds with brightly colored plumage to Bassian lilies of the valley, birds are among the most beautiful and bizarre creatures on Earth. With over nine thousand species, our feathered friends inhabit nearly every square inch of the planet, building their homes in the icy expanses of Antarctica, in the humid rainforests of South America and in every possible degree of climate in between. There are many curiosities about birds that can leave us amazed and make us fall in love with the winged animal kingdom.

Here are fifteen truly amazing facts you may not know about the following fifteen amazing bird species

1. The crow

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the crow (Photo Unsplash)

While crows in the wild are unlikely to learn human language, in captivity they can become quite talkative. Some crows are even better than parrots at mimicking the speech abilities of humans, not to mention the sounds of the human world such as car engines that heat or toilets that flush. In nature, likewise, crows sometimes mimic the vocalizations of other animals, mimicking predators such as wolves or foxes to lure these towards tasty animal carcasses, which they would not be able to dismember on their own, as they do not have fangs: they then they will feed on the "crumbs" left on the ground by the larger animals.

2. The ostrich

The eyes of the ostrich are the largest of all animals that live on land (although they cannot compete with some of the enormous creatures that inhabit the depths of the sea). About the size of a billiard ball, their bulbs are actually even bigger than their brains.

3. The cardinal

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the goldfinch (Photo Unsplash)

Cardinals (along with many other bird species) sometimes cover themselves with squashed or living ants, smearing them on their feathers or allowing living ants to crawl on them. While scientists are still not sure what the real purpose of this strange insect-related behavior is, some believe that birds use the formic acid secreted during the "bath in the ants" to get rid of lice and other parasites permanently, like shampoo.

4. The owl

When owls capture larger animals (raccoons and rabbits, for example), they tear them into more manageable, smaller sized pieces. But they are also known to simply swallow smaller animals, from insects to mice, whole. The owls then regurgitate mouthfuls full of indigestible elements, inserting them into their simple and hasty meal, such as animal bones and furs.

5. The duck

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the duck (Photo Unsplash)

When they take a group nap, some of the ducks stand guard on the perimeter sleeping with one eye open. While the other ducks sleep more soundly, even those outside the circle keep one side of the brain awake, even while they are dozing, so that predators cannot bypass and sneak up on them.

6. The kiwi

Native to New Zealand, kiwis belong to a species of bizarre land bird. Scientists, so baffled by the kiwi's strange properties, which include feathers that look like hair, heavy bones full of pith, and nostrils on the tip of the nose (rather than the base of the beak like most birds), have sometimes called them " honorary mammals ".

6. The hummingbird

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the hummingbird (Photo Unsplash)

Hummingbirds are incredibly light. The average hummingbird weighs roughly four grams (one gram less than a nickel), while the smallest, the bee hummingbird (also called "Mellisuga"), is closer to 1.6 grams, less than a cent . The largest member of the hummingbird family, meanwhile, is the "giant hummingbird" (a very fitting name), which can weigh as much as twenty-four grams, which is a lot for a small bird, but no more than the equivalent of one. handful of small change (a couple of one euro pennies).

7. The pigeon

Believed to be the first domestic bird, pigeons were used for millennia to send messages, including important military information, and the outcome of the first Olympic Games. Although non-avian mail delivery has become more popular over time, pigeons were recently used during World War II to carry select messages.

8. The parrot

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the parrot (Photo Unsplash)

While most parrots only learn about fifty words (they don't have a very varied vocabulary), some African gray parrots have become famous, as they are said to be able to learn over a hundred words. Einstein, a brilliant African gray parrot found in the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee, can say about two hundred words.

9. The collocaliini

Some collocaliini, opportunely called “collocaliini with edible nest”, build nests using almost exclusively their hardened saliva. Saliva nests are considered a delicacy in some countries (in China, they are more frequently used to make their famous "bird's nest soup") and are one of the most expensive foods in the world, despite having little flavor and no real value. nutritional.

10. Bassian's thrush

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: Bassian's lily of the valley (Photo Unsplash)

Bassian lilies of the valley (or as they are called, the "fart thrushes") that eat worms are known to have removed their prey from leaf piles by directing their flatulence (yes, you got it right) towards them. The excretion of gas displaces the nest, throwing it to the ground, and apparently incites the worms to move, revealing their position.

11. The woodpecker

Acorn spikes store their favorite food (acorns, in fact) by drilling holes in trees, fence posts, lampposts and buildings and depositing their nuts there. They are well known for this reason: it is known, in fact, that they are capable of storing up to fifty thousand acorns (each in its own small hole) in a single tree, called the “granary tree”.

12. The penguin

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the penguin (Photo Unsplash)

Although penguins can stand out on land (that is, they are birds dressed in tuxedos), underwater their black and white coloring helps them stay hidden from both predators and prey. As they swim, their black shoulders merge with the darker ocean water below them, making them difficult to spot from above. Their white bellies, meanwhile, help them merge with the clearer and brighter surface of the water, so that they are almost invisible from below. On land, meanwhile, their black backs can stand out sharply against the snowy landscape, but in most regions, the birds face so few surface predators that there's no need to try to hide, blending in with the natural landscape.

13. The wavy parakeet

Curiosities about birds

Curiosities about birds: the parakeet (Photo Unsplash)

Budgies, or rather wavy or "collared" parakeets (called more simply "parakeets" and that's it) are the only bird species discovered so far that are susceptible to contagious yawns. It has already been amply demonstrated by science and common experience that humans, dogs, chimpanzees, laboratory mice and a few other creatures are able to mutually yawn each other; but the budgies belong to the first non-mammalian but volatile species, which shows this peculiar behavior: it has been observed several times. Many scientists believe that the unconscious, instinctive response may be a primitive way of showing empathy, or it could be a sign of group vigilance.