Birds surround us. There is not a single country in the world where they would not exist. We do not often think about them, because they are so familiar that their eyes just do not notice … But it’s vain, because they are truly amazing creatures. Below you will find a selection of interesting facts about birds.
Birds live all over the planet, on all continents. They are even in the most inaccessible areas of Antarctica.
Currently, more than ten and a half thousand different species of birds live on our planet.
The tiniest birds in the world are hummingbirds, individuals of some of their species weigh about 3 grams. The smallest bird in the world is a hummingbird, the average length of its body is about five and a half centimeters.
African ostriches sometimes reach a weight of 150 kg, and some extinct species of non-flying birds weighed up to 400 kg. Currently, the largest of all birds on earth is the African ostrich. The growth of these birds reaches 2.7 meters.
The weight of the smallest bird living on the earth is less than the largest mass, about 66,000 times.
The wandering albatross can boast the greatest wingspan – it can reach three and a quarter meters. There is every reason to believe that these creatures were the largest flying birds in the history of our planet.
Until now, it is not known exactly what kind of living things the birds originated from. One of the most popular theories is that of dinosaurs.
All the sparrows inhabiting North America are descendants of a pair of these birds, released in the Central Park of New York in the XIX century (see interesting facts about sparrows).
Some birds consume a daily amount of food equal to a quarter of the mass of their own body.
There are feathers only in birds, they do not occur in any of the other modern animals.
Birds do not have one larynx, but two.
The New Caledonian Raven is one of the smartest birds. He knows how to make tools from improvised plant materials that help him to procure food-for example, hooked tools that he extracts insects from under the tree bark.
Seabirds can drink salty seawater.
Owls fly absolutely silently thanks to their feathers.
Some birds sleep standing up, and flamingos, for example, can sleep at all, standing on one leg.
The Peregrine Falcon, diving for prey, develops a speed of over 300 kilometers per hour.
Migratory birds fly with a wedge for a reason – such a construction allows to reduce air resistance.
The African ostrich can run at speeds of up to 70 km / h.
Hawks have incredibly sharp eyesight – these birds are able to see the mouse-fly at a distance of up to a kilometer.
Ducks and geese would be able to withstand the cold to a hundred degrees below zero, if there were such frosts on Earth at all.
A bird that lives in Australia, the Lyrebird, has an extremely complex voice device. These creatures are able to imitate any sounds, down to howling chainsaws, human crying or the sound of the car engine.
The only bird that can fly backwards is the hummingbird.
Many species of birds can dive, but the only bird that can swim, but can not fly is the penguin. More precisely, the numerous subspecies of penguins.
The first bird that was once domesticated is a goose.
Almost two thirds of all bird species live in tropical forests.
