endothermic vertebrates that typically have feathers and beaks. They lay hard-shell eggs and are usually capable of flight.
Questions tagged [birds]
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Is this picture showing an eagle flying upside-down genuine?
I found this picture on Facebook:
It definitely doesn't come from a particularly credible source (I F***ing Love Science), but I'm curious if that picture is genuine.
My mother claims that the legs, wings and head appear "unnaturally twisted"…
ApproachingDarknessFish
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Is eating rice harmful to birds?
There is an old custom to throw rice at the wedding couple when they leave the church after the ceremony. But now I have heard from several people that you should not throw rice because birds will eat the rice and then explode when it expands in…
Broken Orange
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Are raptors in Australia intentionally spreading brush fires to smoke out prey?
Articles have been popping up with headlines like the Daily Mail's "Birds of prey are starting fires DELIBERATELY: Kites and Falcons are 'intentionally dropping smouldering twigs' to smoke out mice and insects in Australia". The claim is that some…
RToyo
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Was plastic from a seaplane shot down in 1944 recently found in an albatross stomach?
The environmentalist website Ocean Sentry makes the claim (citing Calgary Herald) that:
The massive clockwise North Pacific Gyre is carrying plastic that is over 50 years old. Last year, plastic found in the stomach of an albatross had a serial…
March Ho
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Are broiler chickens injected with hormones in their left legs?
In my experience, when stores in Bulgaria sell raw chicken legs in packaging, they are always the left leg.
One explanation I have heard is that the left leg is inferior, because it is the site of injections:
Bulgarian news site, Flagman has a 2012…
Ivaylo Strandjev
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Do birds eat chewing gum they think is bread?
This image popped up in my facebook feed today. The translation reads:
Did you know that:
Chewing gum thrown on the street looks like pieces of bread to birds. They try to eat it, but it gets stuck in their beak. No longer able to eat or drink,…
Simon Verbeke
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Were birds used for communication historically?
Were pigeons, ravens etc actually used to send letters?
Pratik Deoghare
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Is T. Rex more similar to sparrows than to stegosaurus?
From XKCD:
XKCD comic 1211 claims that the anatomy of sparrows and T. Rex are more similar than those of T. rex and stegosaurus. While it looks like neither T. rex nor sparrows would be any good at boxing (unless they used the Mike Tyson approach),…
Andrew Grimm
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Is "virtually all the chicken meat we eat" from female birds?
I am confused by conflicting information I am finding online about the most common practices for raising chickens for meat.
I found two sources that state that meat chickens are primarily female:
Male chicks will never grow up to lay eggs and they…
paradisi
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What are the statistics of paternal discrepancy?
From the book The Red Queen by Matt Ridley:
In an astonishing study recently undertaken in Western Europe, the following facts emerged: Married females choose to have affairs with males who are dominant, older, more physically attractive, more…
a06e
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Do roosters let hens eat first?
I recently saw this Reddit comment claiming that roosters are seen as gallant because they let their hens eat first:
In France, the Rooster is seen as a symbol of gallantry. This is
because, (supposedly,) if the Rooster finds a food source he…
March Ho
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Eagles vs. drones: Are Dutch police training drone-hunting eagles?
In this Vice article, it is mentioned that the Dutch police are training eagles to hunt drones.
In a new project to patrol the skies, the Dutch national police force has teamed up with ‘Guard from Above,’ a company that trains birds of prey to…
clem steredenn
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Do pigeons and doves refrain from mating after their lifelong mate dies?
I just came across this quote by Jerome (I don't know in what book he originally wrote it):
Even the pigeons and doves don't take another partner if their companions pass away.
I don't take Jerome's statement to mean that it has literally never…
Mr. Bultitude
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Can birds scream as loud as a jet engine?
I'm moving into an apartment with my cockatoo, and in thinking about sound level I realized I've never actually seen a source for the claim I've heard quite often and passively believed myself:
Cockatoos can scream as loud as a jet engine!
You can…
GManNickG
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Are dog silhouettes effective at keeping geese away?
Canada Geese are a big nuisance where I live (despite living several hours away from Canada). To keep them away, I've seen more and more places put down black wooden dog silhouettes like this one from the New York Times:
Some of them look more like…
Laurel
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