1/28/2007

Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland)

Birds have no sweat glands so they can't cool down by perspiring.  Air cools them in flight and panting when at rest.

To survive, birds must eat a minimum of at least half their own weight in food every day, and the young require even more food.

Incredibly, a tiny young robin devours as much as 14 feet of earthworms each day.

A bird's wing has about 40 different muscles.

Though pigeons have upper and lower eyelids and are capable of blinking, some species of birds, especially flightless ones, have only a lower eyelid.

Birdsong is pleasant to listen to because songbirds possess two sets of vocal chords.

The bones of many birds weigh less than their feathers and their eyes weigh more than their brains.

Birds have no teeth and cannot chew with their beak, so the task of "chewing" is performed by the stomach. The small pebbles and gravel a bird swallows when eating grind the food on its way through the digestive system.

A bird has total focus, taking in everything in one glance, due to its eyes being flat. Human eyes are globular and need to adjust to varying distances.