Birds Facts for Kids
Feathered facts about birds from around the world
Vultures have bald or sparsely feathered heads because feathers on the head would mat with blood and bacteria while feeding inside carcasses.
Barn swallows build their cup-shaped nests from hundreds of individual mud pellets collected from puddles, bound together with grass and saliva.
The edible-nest swiftlet of Southeast Asia builds its nest entirely from solidified saliva — these nests are harvested for bird's nest soup, a luxury delicacy.
The resplendent quetzal rarely survives in captivity — ancient Maya believed it would rather die than be caged, which became a symbol of freedom.
Oystercatcher parents call to their eggs before hatching — studies show the chicks learn to recognise their parents' voices while still inside the egg.
Africa's martial eagle is powerful enough to knock a grown person down — it hunts monitor lizards, small antelopes, and even young baboons.
Research has found that great bowerbirds arrange objects in their bower by size to create a forced-perspective illusion that makes them look larger to watching females.
North America has lost about 3 billion birds since 1970 — nearly 30% of all birds — largely due to habitat loss, pesticides, and outdoor cats.
Pigeons have been trained to recognise their own image in photographs and to distinguish between paintings by Picasso and Monet.
Cuckoos have evolved to lay eggs that closely mimic the colour and pattern of their host bird's eggs — different cuckoo populations specialise in different host species.