In general, the sense of smell in birds is very poorly developed. This correlates with the small size of their olfactory lobes and the short nasal cavities located between the nostrils and the oral cavity. The exception is the New Zealand kiwi bird, in which the nostrils are at the end of a long beak and the nasal cavities are elongated as a result. These features allow her to stick her beak into the soil, sniff out earthworms and other underground food. It is also believed that vultures find carrion with the help of not only sight, but also smell.

The taste is poorly developed, because the lining oral cavity and the covers of the tongue are mostly horny and there is little room for taste buds on them. However, hummingbirds clearly prefer nectar and other sweet liquids, and most species reject highly acidic or bitter foods. However, these animals swallow food without chewing, i.e. seldom hold it in the mouth long enough to subtly distinguish the taste.

Barbecue on the branches
Imagine a thorny bush, on whose long and sharp thorns large beetles, locusts, a frog and, for example, a field mouse are impaled. Such a "bloody" picture can be seen in ...

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A chicken is not a bird?
Why do people say: "a chicken is not a bird"? Probably because real flight is beyond the power of chickens. This applies primarily to domestic chickens, but also to their wild relatives for a long time ...

The quietest bird on Earth is the common pika (Certhia familiaris), which is also found on the territory of Ukraine. She makes sounds so high that they can hardly be heard.

The loudest calls among all birds are made by the Indian peacock - they are heard for several kilometers.

The largest joint nests are arranged by gannets and great cormorants. Over 10 million of these birds annually nest on the islands of the fish-rich rivers of Peru.

The rarest bird lives in the Hawaiian Islands and bears the name “Kauai uh”, which is unusual for our hearing. In 1980, there was only one couple left in the world! It is possible that Kauai uh will soon be officially declared extinct.

Swans have the largest number of feathers - over 25 thousand pieces!

The most ferocious and lucky predators in the world of birds are hawks (Accipiter) and kites (Milvus). They differ high speed flight and, falling like a stone from a height onto their prey, inflict terrible wounds on it with their powerful claws.

What are the most common poultry? From total number birds on earth, which is approximately 100 billion, about 3 billion are domestic chickens.

Among wild birds, the red-billed weaver (Qvelea qvelea) is the number one representative of the passerine order. Over 10 billion of these birds live in West Africa! Even the annual destruction of over 200 million weavers does not affect their numbers.

The deepest diver is the emperor penguin. He is able to dive to a depth of 1.5 km and quickly return to the surface, which saves him from decompression.

The largest waterfowl is the emperor penguin. Its height reaches 1.2 m, the span of pectoral fins is 1.3 m, and its weight is 42.6 kg, which is more than double the weight of any flying bird. True, the emu, with a height of about 2 m, although it is a land bird, is able to swim well.

The longest fast of all birds can withstand the male emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forster). He is able to go without food for up to 134 days.

Among long-lived birds, the absolute record holder is the condor that lives in the Andes. One of these birds lived in captivity for 72 years.

The Andean condor is also the largest flying bird. Its wingspan reaches 3.25 m, and its weight is up to 12.4 kg.

The largest flightless bird African ostrich(Struthio camelus). The growth of some specimens reaches 2.7 m, and the weight is 150-175 kg. Interestingly, females are larger than males, which are rarely heavier than 155 kg. Even larger flightless birds (over 3 m tall) lived in Madagascar and were exterminated in the 17th-18th centuries. ostrich-like epiornis.

The largest egg is an ostrich. Its length is 13.5 cm and its weight is 1.65 kg. By weight, such an egg is equal to 18 chicken, and it will take about 40 minutes to boil it soft-boiled. The eggs of epiornis exterminated in Madagascar weighed 7.5-8 kg!

The most durable egg is also an ostrich. It can support a person weighing up to 115 kg.

The largest forest bird is the helmeted cassowary (Casuarius casuaries) living in Australia and New Guinea, whose height is 1.5 m.

The smallest birds on our planet are the males of the dwarf bumblebee hummingbirds (Mellisuga helenae) living in Cuba. They have a mass of 1.6 g, and their length is 5.5-5.7 cm. At the same time, the beak and tail make up half of the length.

The smallest nests of all birds are also in bumblebee hummingbirds. They are the size of a thimble.

The smallest egg can be laid by a bee hummingbird. It weighs 0.2 g. In the verbena hummingbird, the eggs are less than 1 cm long and weigh 0.37 g.

The largest "incubator" nests are built by many generations of weed chickens (Leipoa ocellata) living in Australia. They reach 4.75 m in height, 10.6 m in width, and their weight is estimated at tens of tons.

The heaviest of modern flying birds is the bustard (Otis, or Otides), whose weight reaches 19-20 kg.

The fastest flight is made by the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). It is capable of speeds of 200-270 km / h.

The sooty tern (Sterna fuscata) is considered the "most flying bird". Leaving its nesting sites, it stays in the air from 3 to 10 years, only from time to time sinking into the water.

The record holder for the distance of flights is the gray petrel (Puffinus griseus). During migration, the length of its flight averages about 64,000 km.

The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) has the sharpest eyesight of all birds. At ideal conditions he can see a pigeon at a distance of more than 8 km.

Whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) are capable of flying above all. In 1967, they were spotted by an aircraft pilot at an altitude of just over 8,230 m above the Hebrides (UK). The height was confirmed by the workers of the tracking station.

The largest wingspan (about 7.6 m) had a living in South America Teretoron (Argentavis magnificens) 6-8 million years ago.

The longest step (sometimes over 7 m) is capable of making an ostrich.

The fastest land bird is also the ostrich. He can run at a speed of 72 km/h.

The only bird on our planet without wings and a tail is the kiwi (Apteryx australis). This creature, whose body is covered with hair-like feathers, lives in the forests of New Zealand. Kiwi is also one of the few birds that have a well-developed sense of smell. Kiwi nostrils are not at the base of the beak, but at the end. At the base of the beak are "whiskers" or tactile vibrissae. Sticking a long and flexible "nose" into the damp earth, the kiwi sniffs out worms and insects. By the way, the total weight of the eggs laid by the females of these birds (usually from 4 to 6) is almost equal to their body weight.

The only bird born with claws on its wings is the hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin), found in Brazil, Venezuela, and eastern Colombia.

The most smelly bird is also considered the hoatzin. Its meat has a sharp musty and nauseating smell. European settlers in South America even call it "forest stink", and Colombians - Pava hedionda ("stinking pheasant"). It is believed that the smell is associated with the diet of hoatzin (green foliage) and a special digestive system (food is fermented in the anterior part of the intestine).

Most high level metabolism in hummingbirds (Trochilidae). Birds from this family require an amount of food equal to at least half their body weight.

The fastest wing movements are carried out by a hummingbird from South America with a horned sange (Heliactin cornuta) - up to 90 strokes per second.

The rarest wing movements during flight are carried out by vultures from the Cathartidae family - one stroke per second.
Date: 01/24/2013 06:48:35 Visitors: 8539

Common pika (Certhia familiaris)

indian peacock

Northern gannet

Great cormorant

Swan

Hawk

Kite

domestic chickens

Red-billed weaver (Qvelea qvelea)

emperor penguin

Pitoui

Condor

African ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Epiornis egg, ostrich egg and hummingbird egg

Ostrich

Helmeted cassowary (Casuarius casuaries)

hummingbird

A team of biologists has determined that the sense of smell is just as important to birds as sight or hearing. In addition, scientists were able to find out that the sensitivity to smells depends on the habitat of birds: the more important the role of smells for finding food in a given area, the more “subtle” the sense of smell of birds is. The researchers' work was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

In their work, an employee of the Ornithological Center at the Max Planck Institute Silke Steiger (Silke Steiger) and her colleagues compared the representation of olfactory receptor genes in various kinds birds.

Olfactory receptors located on sensory neurons of the olfactory epithelium are responsible for the perception of odors. It is believed that the number of genes for these receptors correlates with the number of odors that a given organism can distinguish from each other.

In their research, biologists determined the number of olfactory receptor genes in nine species of birds. They found that their number can differ several times from species to species. So, in the DNA of the southern kiwi, there are six times more genes for olfactory receptors than in the DNA of blue tit or canary.

The scientists also tested how many of these genes are functional. In organisms where the importance of smell for survival is reduced, mutations accumulate in the genes of these receptors, which eventually turn them off. So, in humans, up to 40 percent of the olfactory receptor genes are inactive. As Steiger and colleagues found, most of the receptor genes in birds are functional, which may indicate the importance of smell for their life.

Another difference between the studied species of birds, scientists found in their brain: what more the olfactory receptor genes were carried by a bird, the larger was the size of its olfactory bulb, the brain structure responsible for processing information about odors.

Scientists have suggested that in birds, as in mammals, the number of olfactory genes may depend on their habitat. For example, the flightless southern kiwi finds food on the ground. Kiwis are found only in New Zealand. Northern kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) inhabits the North Island, common (A. australis), large gray (A. haasti) and rowi (A. rowi) - the South island, while small kiwi (A. oweni) is found only on the island Kapiti, from where he is settled on some other isolated islands. Due to the secretive lifestyle, it is very difficult to meet this bird in nature.

Biologists believe that for this bird, the sense of smell can play the same, if not more, role than vision. Kiwis do not mainly rely on sight - their eyes are very small, only 8 mm in diameter - but on developed hearing and smell.

Among birds, condors also have a very strong sense of smell. In search of food, condors mainly use their excellent eyesight. In addition to searching for prey, they also carefully observe other nearby birds - ravens and other American vultures - turkey vulture, large and small yellow-headed catharts.

Catharts with your good feeling senses of smell find carrion, their main prey.

With catharts, condors have developed a so-called symbiosis, or mutually beneficial existence: catharts have a very subtle sense of smell, capable of smelling from afar the smell of ethyl mercaptan, a gas released during the first stage of decay, but their small size does not allow them to tear the strong skin of large prey as effectively as it can Andean condors.

According to scientists, their results prove that the importance of the sense of smell in birds has so far been underestimated.

Created: 22.11.2013 12:52

The rarest bird on Earth is the kiwi bird. Kiwis belong to the order of ratites. Its length is 50-80 cm. The body is evenly covered with hair-like feathers. The wings are reduced (they are not visible), there is no tail, the legs are short, with sharp claws. It lives in New Zealand and is a relative of the giant moa destroyed here about two centuries ago. The kiwi is a small dark red nocturnal bird that feeds on snails, worms and other burrowing animals. This is the only bird good sense of smell. She also uses antennae on her beak. Running fast on strong legs, the kiwi constantly plunges its long beak with nostrils at the end into the ground in search of food. Cleaning the “nose”, the bird sniffs like a dog sniffing the soil.

At the beginning of the XX century. it was almost completely exterminated because of its feathers, which were used to make artificial flies for trout fishing. It is with such hair-like feathers that the body of this bird is covered.

Since 1921 it has been under protection.

Hummingbird - the smallest bird on earth, sometimes no larger than a bumblebee (we are talking about a bee hummingbird). In addition, hummingbirds are also the smallest among warm-blooded animals (birds and mammals). The smallest species lives in Cuba and the island of Pinos. Adult males reach a length of 57 mm, with half of this length falling on the beak and tail. Females are somewhat larger than males. It weighs a little less than a two-kopeck coin - 1.6 g. The hummingbird family is very numerous - it includes 319 species. She has the smallest eggs - less than a pea and weighing about 0.2 g (its size is 11.8 x 8 mm). Hummingbird heat body - plus 43 ° C and the strongest heart of all birds. Hummingbirds eat the same way as spiders and bees. These birds constantly fly around spider gear and steal insects entangled in the web from their owners. In addition, hummingbirds prey on insects in the cups of flowers. Having launched a long tongue, they “wash down” this dinner with flower nectar. At the same time, hummingbirds, like bees, pollinate plants. They live mainly in Central and South America, but some species are also found in North America.

One of the most amazing birds in the world is the four-winged, belonging to the nightjar family. The four-winged bird is found in Africa, from Senegal and Gambia in the west to Zaire in the south. The name was given to him not in vain: the male quadruped in breeding plumage has a very long feather in each wing. In flight, these feathers, like flags, flutter either above the bird or behind it. It seems to the observer that the bird has four wings, and sometimes it seems that two small dark birds are chasing it.

The length of the pennant feather reaches 43 cm, with a body length with a tail of 31 cm and a wing length of 17 cm. It is believed that at the end of the mating season, the male breaks off jewelry that interferes with flight. Indeed, sometimes you can meet birds with "stubs" of long feathers sticking out of their wings. They persist until the next molt.

The opportunity to photograph the four-winged is very rare, because, like all nightjars, it flies at dusk. English zoologist Michael Gore found a male Quadruptera in a daytime hiding place, scared him off and took a good picture.

The peregrine falcon develops the highest speed for the animal world during a rapid dive for prey - 300 km / h or more!

Other birds are significantly inferior to the record holder. An eagle, for example, develops a speed of 190 km/h, a hobby and a black swift - 150, a swan - 90, a starling - 80, a swallow - 75 and a sparrow - 55 km/h. Note that the bird develops its maximum speed when attacking prey or, on the contrary, when escaping from a predator.

In normal flight, the speed of birds is much slower.

In horizontal flight among birds there is no equal to the black swift (Apus apus). His usual speed180 km/h A slightly lower figure for the white-breasted needle-tailed swift( Hirundapus caudacutus), widespread in the Asian region. However, science knows a rare species of swift under the Latin name chaetura, which demonstrates simply fantastic speeds - 335 km / h, easily overcoming powerful air resistance.

Very good and marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus ) - 288 km/h This slender bird half a meter long flies, swaying in a peculiar way and keeping as close to the ground as possible.

The peregrine falcon from the falcon family dives best of all. Back in the 1960s, with the help of electronics, ornithologists absolutely accurately measured the maximum possible speed of a diving peregrine falcon. Note that in level flight it does not exceed 100 km/h. While hunting for prey, the peregrine falcon falls down like a stone at a speed of 290 to 380 km / h.

Of the birds, the most “slow-moving” is the American woodcock.(Philomela minor). Its maximum flight speed is 8 km/h.

The most long-lived birds are falcons. They live up to 160-170 years.

The rest of the birds are significantly inferior to falcons in life expectancy, but many of them do not live long. less than a person. So, a parrot in captivity can live up to 135 years. Kites and vultures have been living for more than 100 years. Vultures live up to 100 years, condors, golden eagles, wild geese and other birds live up to 80 years. Unfortunately, in nature, few birds live to their limiting age, since most of them do not die from old age at all.

Among poultry, the longest-lived is the goose. He lives to be a hundred years old. Chickens usually live much less - up to 30 years, ducks - up to 40 years.

These mysterious feelings

Organs of taste and smell in birds

The organs of taste in birds are represented by taste buds located in some parts of the beak and tongue, near the ducts of glands that secrete a sticky or liquid secret, since the sensation of taste is possible only in a liquid medium. A pigeon has 30-60 of these taste buds, a parrot has about 400, and ducks have a lot of them. For comparison, we point out that in the human oral cavity there are about 10 thousand taste buds, in a rabbit - about 17 thousand. Nevertheless, birds well distinguish between sweet, salty and sour, and some, apparently, bitter. Pigeons work out conditioned reflexes on substances that create such sensations - solutions of sugar, acids, salts. Birds have a positive attitude towards sweets.

Smells are not as indifferent to birds as previously thought. For some of them, they play a very significant role in the search for food. It is believed that corvids, such as jays and nutcrackers, search for nuts and acorns under the snow, focusing mainly on smell. Obviously, petrels and waders have the best developed sense of smell, and especially the nocturnal New Zealand kiwis, which, apparently, get food, guided mainly by olfactory sensations. Features of the microstructure of the olfactory receptors of birds led some researchers to the conclusion that they have two types of odor perception: on inspiration, as in mammals, and the second on exhalation. The latter helps in the odor analysis of food that has already been collected in the beak and has formed a food portion in its back. Such a lump of food in the choanal area is collected before swallowing in the beak of chickens, ducks, waders and other birds.

Recently it has been suggested that the olfactory organ plays a role in the period preceding reproduction. Along with other rearrangements in the body of birds at this time, there is a strong increase in the coccygeal gland, which has an odorous secret specific to each species. In pre-nesting time, members of the same pair, along with other ritual postures, often take a position in which they touch each other's coccygeal gland with their beak. Perhaps the smell of her secret is a signal that triggers the complex. physiological processes associated with reproduction.

The olfactory abilities of birds are questioned by many. The differences in the complexity of the organization of the organs of smell in birds and mammals are too great for them to use this sense equally. Still, many ornithologists admit that tropical honeyguides find wild bee hives in part by the peculiar smell of wax. During the breeding season, many tube-noses often burp a dark, sharp-smelling liquid from the stomach - "stomach oil", which often stains nests and chicks. It is believed that in a dense colony, individual differences in the smell of this receptor help them find their offspring. The South American nightjar guajaro detects the fragrant fruits of trees, probably also by smell.

The olfactory analyzer is developed in different birds to varying degrees. But the mechanism of its functioning is largely the same as in other vertebrates. This is confirmed, in particular, by electrophysiological studies.