Bird Facts

1. The bird that lays the smallest egg in the world is the bee hummingbird. Its egg is just under 0.5" x 0.25" and weighs a mere 0.02 oz.
2. The ostrich lays the biggest egg in the world. It measures 7" x 5" and weighs 3 pounds. However, the biggest egg for the size of the mother is laid by the kiwi and is a third of the weight of the bird. It is 5" long and can weigh as much as 1 lb. This would be the equivalent of an ostrich laying an 88 lb. (40 kg.) egg.
3. The Malleefowl is famed for making a huge compost pile for its nest. Its eggs are incubated by the heat given off by the rotting vegetation.
4. Social weaverbirds 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.
5. The heaviest bird of prey is the Andean condor. It can weigh up to 27 lb. (12 kg.).
6. The most common wild bird in the world is the red-billed Quelea, with an estimated adult breeding population of 1.5 billion pairs. It mostly lives in sub-Saharan Africa and thousands of birds can be in a single flock. The most common non wild bird is the chicken.
7. Many scientists believe that birds evolved from dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era about 150 million years ago.
8. In the United States alone, there are over 40 million pet birds.
9. A bird’s feathers weigh more than its skeleton.
10. The type of diet a bird eats in the wild is directly related to the shape of a bird’s beak.