Bird fun facts

Archaeopteryx

The oldest bird, the Archaeopteryx, lived about 150 million years ago.

An ostrich egg must be boiled for 2 hours to get a hard-boiled egg.

Ostrich eyes are about as big as a billiard ball and are larger than the bird's brain.

When ducks sleep in groups, the ones on the perimeter keep guard by sleeping with one eye open.

Native to New Zealand, the kiwi is sometimes called an "honorary mammal" because its feathers feel like hair.

Most hummingbirds weigh less than a nickel.

In ancient Greece, pigeons delivered the results of the Olympic games.

Some swiftlets build their nests almost exclusively from their hardened saliva. The saliva nests are a delicacy in some countries despite having little flavor and no nutritional value.

Brown Kiwi of New Zealand

There are many names for flocks of birds. A group of crows is a murder, congress or horde. Finches come in charms, penguins in huddles and geese in gaggles. The most creative may be a pandemonium of parrots or a flamboyance of flamingoes.

Birds' lungs are more complicated and more efficient than mammals' lungs. Human lungs, for instance, comprise one-twentieth of the body; the bird's, one-fifth.

The bird with the most feathers is the Whistling Swan with 25,000 feathers. Hummingbirds, due to their tiny size, only have about 1,000 feathers.

The feathers of a bird weigh more than its skeleton.

The Bald Eagle builds the biggest tree nests. The largest was 10 feet across and weighed close to 3 tons.

A huddle of penguins takes daily stroll from zoo in Scotland in 1950s

Approximately two-thirds of all bird species are found in tropical rain forests.

Owls cannot move their eyes. Instead they swivel their heads.