My Science School

Vulture is a bird of prey. The Old World vultures include 15 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; and New World vultures are restricted to North and South America. Most of the species have a bald head, and a neck devoid of feathers.

It has a strong, sharp and hooked beak and a long wingspan, which allows it to stay in flight for long periods of time, without flapping my wings. It scavenges on carrion and sometimes feeds on newborn and wounded animals. It can go without food for days and when it does find something to eat, it has its fill.

It has a throat pouch called a crop, which is used to store food to be consumed later or to feed young ones. It has strong stomach acid, which allows it to safely digest decaying carcasses.

It is a myth that vultures circle dying animals waiting to feed. These birds are powerful fliers and soar on thermals (columns of rising air) while they look for food, but they cannot sense when an animal is dying. When they locate a carcass by smell, sight, or the sound of other birds feeding, they approach it quickly before other predators find it.

Picture Credit : Google

The mockingbird was given its name because of its ability to mimic the calls of dozens of other bird species. In fact, the mockingbird's Latin name, Mimus polyglottos, means many-tongued mimic. The mockingbird has even been known to mimic the sounds of dogs and sirens!  The mockingbird is especially vocal on moonlit spring nights.

It ranges from the northern United States to Mexico—or to Brazil, if the tropical mockingbird (M. gilvus) is considered a race rather than a separate species—and has been introduced into Hawaii. It thrives in suburban areas. This bird sings from high perches and vigorously defends its territory; it may even sing at night.

Other species of Mimus range from Central and South America to Patagonia, and the blue mockingbird (Melanotis) inhabits much of Mexico. The Galapagos mockingbird (Nesomimus) has various races or subspecies on the different islands, showing an adaptive radiation similar to, but not as extreme as, that found in the Galapagos finch.

Credit : Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google

Have you ever wondered why mockingbirds mimic other birds? Scientists believe that mockingbirds imitate the calls of other birds to deter them from settling in their territory, by giving them the impression that the place is already crowded. It is said that a mockingbird is capable of mimicking over 200 songs. In addition to bird songs, the bird can replicate dog barks, sirens and other sounds in the environment.

Scientists aren't sure about why mockingbirds mock, though. Gammon says that robins and cardinals don't change their behavior when northern mockingbirds imitate their calls. Therefore, it seems unlikely that the mockingbirds are trying to manipulate other species through vocal mimicry.

An adult male mockingbird can emit up to 200 distinctive noises. You might be surprised to learn that these birds do have songs of their own, melodies that are not lifted from other avian species. Mockingbirds are most likely to imitate sounds — like titmouse cries, cardinal chirps, and yes, even car alarms — that are acoustically similar to the rhythm and pitch of their own voices. Nobody knows why that is.

Credit : How Stuff Works 

Picture Credit : Google

Avocet is a medium-sized wading bird found in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. It inhabits wetlands, marshes and swamps.

Its body is covered with black and white feathers. It has long, slender legs and webbed feet. Its long, upward curled beak is most distinctive feature.

Its diet includes insects, worms, crustaceans, molluscs, fish and amphibians. It is a social bird that lives in large flocks. It is highly territorial and it aggressively protects its territory.

Their nests are little more than depressions in the sand or platforms of grass on mudflats. If the water rises, the breeding pair raises the nest a foot or more with sticks, weeds, bones, and feathers to keep the eggs above water.
After hatching, the young not only feed themselves, but they can also swim.
Avocets will defend themselves using distraction tactics such as loud screeching, a "crippled bird" act, and even a "dive bomb" display where the bird will swoop down on the predator and narrowly miss it until the intruder turns away.

Picture Credit : Google

The Galapagos penguin is the only penguin species found in the north of the equator. Native to the Galapagos Islands, it is believed to survive the warmer environment because of the Humboldt Current that brings cold waters to the islands. One of the smaller penguins, it has bare patches of skin around its eyes and at the base of its beak.

Based on their small geographic distribution, their already naturally low numbers, and their decreasing population size, Galapagos penguins are considered endangered (highly vulnerable to extinction). Some individuals are accidentally caught by fishers targeting other species, but the two biggest issues for Galapagos penguin populations are climate variability and invasive species. The cyclical, large-scale climate phenomenon known as El Niño significantly reduces the amount of food available to Galapagos penguins, causing them to skip nesting. In severe cases, these events can lead to starvation of the adults. While El Nino is a natural phenomenon, there is some growing evidence that human activities acting on the climate system as a whole may increase the severity or frequency of El Nino events. Perhaps a greater risk to this species is the introduction of two very different species, both of which threaten adult and juvenile Galapagos penguins. Introduced cats attack and eat these penguins and have contributed to a direct reduction in population size. Introduced mosquitoes carry avian flu, a virus that is particularly deadly to Galapagos penguins and its close relatives. An outbreak of this flu could easily spread through large swaths of the remaining Galapagos penguin population. Finally, as Galapagos penguins (like all penguins) are air breathers that regularly come to the sea surface, an oil spill in the Galapagos Islands could be a major threat to this rare, coastal species. Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 600 breeding pairs of Galapagos penguins alive today, so without continuing conservation measures, the species could be at risk of being lost.

Credit : Oceana 

Picture Credit : Google

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards. Hummingbirds have a unique ball and socket joint at the shoulder that allows the bird to rotate its wings 180 degrees in all directions. The shape of their wings are long, narrow and tapered, which allows them to move more quickly and easily through the air. Additionally, the shoulder and elbow joints of the wing are very close to their tiny bodies, allowing the wings to tilt and pivot. These characteristics allow hummingbirds to change flight directions in a way other birds cannot.

These birds have a unique wing structure and muscles which gives them a high level of flight control which lacks in other birds. Just like a helicopter, a hummingbird can fly forward and backwards, diagonally, left to right, right to the left and even hover. Hummingbirds produce 25% of the weight support during an upstroke and 75% during a downstroke; with its wings making figure-eight motions.

The majority of birds fly with downstrokes and upstrokes, and they generate their lifts and power with each stroke. Hummingbirds instead stroke their wings backwards and forward, pivoting about one hundred and eighty degrees at their shoulders to rotate their wings. They can generate lifts for both backward and forward strokes with the tip of their wings tracing a horizontal figure-eight with each beat. A minute twist changes the wing’s angle and the direction of the flight.

Credit :  WorldAtlas 

Picture Credit : Google

The hummingbird has a long tail to probe into flowers for nectar. In fact, the bill acts like a covering to protect its forked tongue which is what the bird uses to get its fill of nectar. Did you know a hummingbird’s tongue is lightning fast, going in and out of a flower 18 to 20 times per second?

What makes them so intriguing to us is the result of this simple dietary choice: they drink nectar. Each flower doesn't offer a lot, so to make a living off tiny amounts of nectar spread throughout the forest, hummingbirds are tiny, fast and feisty.

Feeding on nectar is hummingbirds' defining characteristic, but until now scientists didn't know the exact mechanics of how they do it. In our new study, we were able to slow them down on video to see how they really drink nectar. And what we found was quite different from the conventional wisdom since the 1800s.

Credit : Phys.org 

Picture Credit : Google

Pigeon poop was popular as a natural fertilizer, and highly prized in countries like Persia (now Iran) and France. Remember the dovecotes? It is said that in the 18th Century, King George I of England declared all pigeon droppings to be the property of the Crown as the manure was used in making gunpowder. Saltpetre (potassium nitrate), an important ingredient in gunpowder, was extracted from pigeon poop.

The use of pigeon guano as fertilizer continued throughout history up until the development of agribusiness that resulted in cheaper more efficient means of fertilizer. In early history however, it’s plausible to suggest that the domestication of pigeons led to advances in the ability to grow the best possible crops. There is also evidence that pigeon poop is a better fertilizer than other farm animal manure, which ultimately could have led to the development of more efficient agrarian societies. The importance of the discovery of pigeon poop as a fertilizer certainly had a great influence on the history of human agriculture.

Today of course saltpeter can be synthesized with modern chemistry however in a historical context pigeon guano would have been a valuable commodity in earlier history when other sources were not as abundant or still largely undiscovered. In 16th century England, the humble pigeon was the only source of saltpeter, giving pigeons a huge role in the combative effectiveness of the English during this period.  Perhaps pigeon poop was an important factor in the outcomes of some of the first wars involving guns, potentially changing the flow of history. 

Picture Credit : Google

No, when danger threatens, an ostrich may run away, often at 80.5km (50 miles) an hour. But it can also inflict terrible wounds by kicking out with its powerful legs and sharp toes.

Ostriches are the largest and heaviest living birds in the world. Despite standing seven to nine feet tall and weighing as much as 350 pounds, these birds have relatively small heads. When nesting, they dig shallow holes in the ground to use as nests for their eggs. They use their beaks to turn their eggs several times each day. From a distance, an ostrich leaning into a hole to turn an egg could easily look like it's burying its head in the sand!

This myth could also have arisen from a couple of other ostrich behaviors. For example, when ostriches eat plants along the ground, they could easily look like they've buried their heads in the sand, especially from a distance. Likewise, ostriches often lie down flat on the ground when they feel threatened. From a distance, all that's visible is their large body, leading some to think that the rest may be buried.

Even though they get a bad rap, ostriches are very interesting birds. Native to Africa, they tend to roam savanna and desert areas, grazing on plants alongside giraffes and zebras. The ostrich was once known as the “camel bird," because of its long neck, large eyes, long eyelashes, and unique walk. Like camels, ostriches can also tolerate high temperatures and go without water for days.

Even though they're birds, ostriches cannot fly. Their bodies are simply too large to permit flight. They can, however, run like the wind! Their long, powerful legs can maintain a steady speed of over 30 miles per hour, with short bursts of up to 43 miles per hour. Their wings, while useless for flight, do help them to keep their balance when they run.

Credit : Wonderopolis

Picture Credit : Google

To soft boil a hen's egg for breakfast would take four minutes. An ostrich's egg, the biggest bird's egg of all, would take at least 40 minutes to boil.

It takes about 90 minutes or 1 ½ hour to hard boil an ostrich egg. All you gotta do is to boil water in a big saucepan. Once the water starts boiling add ostrich egg in it and let it boil for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes you will get your hands on a nutritious and gigantic hard-boiled egg that is more rubbery as compared to the hen’s egg.

Ostrich egg is highly nutritious and is a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin E, zinc, manganese, and selenium. Moreover, an ostrich egg weighs around three pounds and is six inches in diameter. 

Ostriches lay their eggs in communal nests that hold as many as 60 at a time. Male and female ostrich both have the duty of incubation. 

From the Safari Ostrich Farm, Oudtshoorn, South Africa, we learn that “An ostrich egg contains approximately 2,000 calories, 47 percent protein, and 45 percent fat.” 

They are 15 cm long which means approximately 5.9 inches long, 13 cm wide which means approximately 5.1 inches wide, and weighs around 1.4 kilograms approximately which means 3.1 lb, which is 20 times more than the weight of a chicken’s egg, and simply 1% to 4% the size of the female. 

To break the shell there will be no cracking it on the lip of a pan; you are going to need a chisel and hammer.

Thus, if you eat an ostrich egg you will be eating a whopping 2000 calories and that is not what a person can consume in one sitting. Thus, the ostrich egg is really energy and calories dense.

Credit : The Whole Portion 

Picture Credit : Google

Although puffins spend most of their time far out at sea, they also rest on rocks and cliffs in large colonies.

These birds dig long burrows in the ground using their beaks and feet. Their eggs are laid in a little nesting chamber at the end of the underground burrow.

These birds live most of their lives at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. They are excellent swimmers that use their wings to stroke underwater with a flying motion. They steer with rudderlike webbed feet and can dive to depths of 200 feet, though they usually stay underwater for only 20 or 30 seconds. Puffins typically hunt small fish like herring or sand eels.

Atlantic puffins land on North Atlantic seacoasts and islands to form breeding colonies each spring and summer. Iceland is the breeding home of perhaps 60 percent of the world's Atlantic puffins. The birds often select precipitous, rocky cliff tops to build their nests, which they line with feathers or grass. Females lay a single egg, and both parents take turns incubating it. When a chick hatches, its parents take turns feeding it by carrying small fish back to the nest in their relatively spacious bills. Puffin couples often reunite at the same burrow site each year. It is unclear how these birds navigate back to their home grounds. They may use visual reference points, smells, sounds, the Earth's magnetic fields—or perhaps even the stars.

Credit : National Geographic 

Picture Credit : Google

These large wild game birds come from the USA. Early European settlers almost wiped out the turkey in North America because it became one of their favourite foods.

Adult wild turkeys have long, reddish-yellow to grey-green legs, with feathers being blackish and dark, usually with a coppery sheen. Males have a large, featherless, reddish head and throat, with red wattles on the neck. The head also has fleshy growths called caruncles and a long, fleshy protrusion over the beak, which is called a snood.

When males become excited, the fleshy flap on the bill expands and the wattles and bare skin of the head and neck all become engorged with blood, almost concealing the eyes and bill. The tail becomes erect and fan-shaped, and the glossy bronze wings are drooped and held slightly out from the body, creating a very impressive sight.

Despite their huge size and weight, wild turkeys are not bad at flying and gliding, not only to get away from danger but also to go up to roost in trees. Their ideal habitat is open woodland or wooded pastures and scrub.

A wide range of noises are made by the male – especially in spring time. The well-known rapid ‘gobble’ noise can carry for up to a mile, to which hen birds will reply with a ‘yelp’, thereby letting the males know where they are located.

Nests are a simple, shallow dirt depressions amongst woody vegetation, in which the hen will lay a clutch of 10-14 eggs and incubate them for around 28 days. Once hatched, the chicks usually leave the nest within 12 hours, to follow along behind the hen.

Having once been an abundant bird, turkeys almost went extinct in the 1930s from loss of forest habitat and over hunting. However, recovery efforts were put in place and today the wild population is estimated to be 7 million in North and Central America.

Credit : Game and Wildlife Conversation Trust 

Picture Credit : Google

When a species dies out it disappears forever. Humans are often responsible for hunting and killing some animals to extinction, like the passenger pigeon, the last of which died in a zoo.

Fossils show that there have been five previous periods of history when an unusually high number of extinctions occurred in what are known as mass extinctions. Most of the Earth’s species went extinct roughly 266 million to 252 million years ago in the Permian extinction.

Those losses, however, also paved the way for dinosaurs to evolve into existence, as mass extinctions create a chance for new species to emerge. Dinosaurs met their end about 65 million years ago in another mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. A large crater off of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula suggests that an asteroid most likely struck there. Scientists believe that volcanic eruptions in India caused global warming that also may have contributed to the mass extinction.

Scientists are debating whether Earth is now in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. If so, it may be the fastest one ever with a rate of 1,000 to 10,000 times the baseline extinction rate of one to five species per year. Humans are largely responsible for the striking trend. Scientists believe that pollution, land clearing, and overfishing might drive half of the planet’s existing land and marine species to extinction by 2100.

Slowly increasing surface temperatures caused by heightened levels of greenhouse gases likely will cause many species to move toward the Earth’s poles and higher up into the mountains to stay in habitats with the same climates. But not all species will be able to adapt quickly enough to stave off extinction and many are expected to perish.

Credit : National Geographic 

Picture Credit : Google

On land the flightless penguin is a clumsy, funny creature. Underwater it 'flies' with great speed and grace.

Penguins are birds of the ocean, spending up to 75 percent of their lives in the water. Some penguins, like the fiordland and rockhopper, have even been found with barnacles growing on their feathers!  Much of what seems odd about penguins is due to the fact that they spend so much time in the water.

Swimming is what penguins do best. A penguin’s awkward waddle may seem comical on land but that’s because they are made to swim. Adaptive wizards of the sea, their torpedo shaped bodies combined with powerful flippers enable penguins to swim to considerable depths and over great distances. Their legs and feet, located far back on the body, contribute to the waddle on land, but underwater they act as streamlined rudders that minimize drag.

At the water’s surface a penguin can at best paddle like a duck, but below the waves penguins cruise at speeds faster than Olympic swimmers. The fastest, the emperor penguin, can reach 9 mph (14 km/hr) when in a hurry but prefers a steady 7 mph. Most midsize penguins swim around 5 mph (8 km/hr) and the smallest penguin, the little penguin, meanders at a slow 1 mph (1.5 km/hr). A traveling penguin keeps the surface within 3 to 6.5 feet (1-2 meters) often employing a swimming technique called porpoising. Porpoising is a shallow skimming across the water through a series of consecutive leaps, named for its similarity to how porpoises swim. The primary function of porpoising is its efficiency in moving quickly through the water while allowing for breathing at the surface without slowing down. It may also serve as a defense mechanism against predators—it makes it difficult to grab a swimming penguin when they are continually disappearing above the surface.

Credit : Smithsonian 

Picture Credit : Google

This Chinese delicacy is made by soaking and cooking the nests of a type of swift. The bird makes its nest with saliva.

Bird’s nest soup is also a delicacy in the Philippine province of Palawan, specifically in the northern town of El Nido, which aptly translates to “the nest.” It was there in this laid-back beach-resort town that I was curious to sample the controversial soup — sort of a “when in Rome” moment. To my surprise, only a few of the dozens of restaurants in El Nido actually served bird’s nest soup. Most Filipinos don’t eat it; it’s mainly a dish they prepare for curious tourists who’ve likely heard about it from Zimmern or Bourdain. Local restaurants might not even prepare it at all if not for the main ingredient being conveniently “local”; surrounding El Nido and the nearby islands of Bacuit Bay are hundreds of limestone rock formations, where daring Filipino climbers ascend sharp cliff sides to harvest the nests from caves high above.

Pieces of the nest are stored in a cool, dry place, but then are soaked in cold water overnight before they are stewed with chicken stock and a little cornstarch. The result is a thick and hearty soup that looks, tastes and feels like egg drop soup from a Chinese takeout joint, only with soft bits of nest pieces (that don’t require much effort to chew) in lieu of egg. The thickness of the soup might suggest that the base is actually saliva, but when you realize that’s just the cornstarch in the stock, it mentally goes down easier. In fact, it goes down really easy because, to my surprise, it actually tasted quite good — minus that aftertaste of guilt for having stolen a bird’s home to enjoy it.

Credit : Cooking Channel 

Picture Credit : Google