Bird Facts

Bird Facts

1. Flamingos pair for a lifetime. Some stay with their mates for 50 years or more.
2. 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.
3. A green woodpecker can eat as many as 2,000 ants per day.
4. The Japanese crested ibis is one of the rarest birds in the world. Probably fewer than 50 crested ibises are alive today.
5. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska polluted approximately 1,180 miles of coastline and killed up to 100,000 seabirds.
6. 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.
7. Coalminers often used canaries to detect poisonous levels of carbon monoxide gas. Miners knew that if the canary passed out, they were in danger, too. The phrase “Canary in a Coalmine” derives from this history.
8. The marsh warbler can mimic more than 80 different birds. Other renowned mimics include mockingbirds and lyrebirds.
9.  A pelican’s pouch-like beak can hold up to 2.5 gallons of water at a time. The beak will shrink to squeeze out the water before the pelican swallows its food.
10. A vulture named the Lammergeyer will fly with bones high in the air and then drop them onto rocks. It will then eat the smashed bones, like a circus sword swallower.