Huge flocks of starlings have disrupted military flights at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where vast numbers of the birds roost in the thickly forested countryside. Building owners have Eugene Schieffler, an avid Shakespeare buff, to thank for the starling infestation. His goal was to introduce into the Western Hemisphere every bird mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare! He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Sparrows were introduced in North America in 1851 in Brooklyn, New York. Today they can be found everywhere from near the Arctic Circle to most populous countries.
There would be fewer sparrows if there were more hawks and owls. But the bigger birds have not adapted nearly as well to human proximity.
Many species of birds like to clean their feathers with live ants. The birds will pick up the ants and use them to stroke their feathers. This is fun to watch! The birds twist and turn, and get so excited they trip over their own feet and step on their own tails.
Most birds have little or no sense of smell. Want proof? One of the favorite foods of the great horned owl is the skunk!
Birds have better eyesight than humans. A hawk can spot an insect as small as a cricket from 30 metres in the air. A hawk’s eyesight is 1,000 times sharper than a human’s. But it’s more difficult for a bird. Unlike humans, they can’t move their eyeballs. There is another difference between human eyes and bird eyes. Birds have a third eyelid between the upper and lower lid. This eyelid is transparent and moves from side to side instead of up and down, like a sliding cupboard door. It protects the eye from dust and harmful rays from the sun. (An eagle can look directly at the sun.)
Birds are hotter than humans. A human being’s normal temperature is 37 degrees C. A duck has a temperature of 42.8 degrees C, a heron, 41 degrees C, sparrows 41.6 degrees C, and thrushes go up to 45 degrees C!
Talking and singing birds are cerebrally lateralized for language on their left sides, like humans.
Turkeys were once thought to come from, where else, but Turkey.
Since 1600, 109 species and subspecies of birds have become extinct.