There are approximately 9,300 species of birds all over the globe, from the poles to the deserts, and everywhere between. All together, scientists estimate there are probably between 100 billion and one trillion birds in the world. That's enough birds to make a line stretching all the way from here to the sun and back again! Most of the world's birds are southerners. South America alone is home to 2,500 species of birds, and is often called (by bird-lovers) the Bird Continent. The runner-up is Africa; where about 1,750 species live in the region south of the Sahara Desert. North America has about 950 different species of birds.

Bird Wing Speed Bird Wing Beats per Second Vulture 1 Red-tailed hawk 2 Pigeon 5-8 Mockingbird 14 Chickadee 27 Hummingbird 80 Compared to... Honeybee 250 Gnat 500

Birds range in size from a bee hummingbird, which weighs about as much as a dime, to the ostrich, which can grow to be over six feet tall, and weigh 300 pounds!

A peregrine falcon, when diving for prey, can reach speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour.

In the summer and fall, birds eat more insects for protein than seeds.

A chickadee will eat from 200-500 insects, and 4000 eggs/larvae per day.

A purple martin, which has a very fast metabolism rate, must consume its own weight in insects daily. This two ounces translates to 7,000 mosquitos per day!

In the winter (where, here in the north, nights can last up to 15 hours), birds need lots of extra energy to stay warm. They must eat virtually all day long to survive.

At 5° F, a sparrow can live without food for up to 15 hours. During the summer, a bird can go up to three days without food.

A cardinal nest has four layers, and takes six days to build.

The common flicker (from the woodpecker family) eats more ants than any other bird known.

Hummingbirds eat about every ten minutes, slurping down twice their body weight in nectar every day. Most birds eat one quarter to one half their body weight in food daily.

An "average" yard is visited on a regular basis by 15-20 bird species.

Pigeons are the only birds who can drink water like people do, sucking it up against gravity. Other birds must scoop up a mouthful of water, then tilt their heads backward to swallow.

The cardinal is the wild bird leading the list as the most popular "state" bird. It is the state bird in seven states.

The following fun facts can be found in the book, "Everything You Never Learned About Birds" by Rebecca Rupp, published by Storey Publishing:

The jacana, a robin-sized wading bird of the tropical marshes, has very long toes, which allow the bird to walk across the water on top of lily pads. Jacanas are sometimes called "lily-trotters."

In winter, the ptarmigan (the state bird of Alaska) grows special feathers on the tops and bottoms of its feet. These work like snowshoes, allowing the bird to walk across the surface of soft snow.

In medieval times, it was believed that the feet of the great horned owl, burned with herbs, would protect people from poisonous serpents.

The natives of New Hebrides, a small group of Western Pacific islands, used feathers for money. One honeyeater feather was worth one pig or two wives.

If you have ever rowed a boat, you know that rowers use their oars in the same way a bird uses its feathers in flying. The oar is turned broadside as it pulls through the water, the flat paddle thrusting the boat forward. The oar is turned sideways as it comes out of the water, to reduce wind resistance. Rowers call this "feathering" their oars.

Although there are forty six species of flightless birds, the world's only wingless bird is the kiwi of New Zealand.

Migration

The annual disappearance of the birds puzzled people for hundreds of years. Some thought that all birds hibernated during the winter, huddling together at the bottom of ponds and rivers. One seventeenth century writer even claimed that birds spent their winters on the moon.

Speeding Birds Bird Miles per Hour House sparrow 10-20 American robin 20-30 Herring gull 20-40 Crow 31-45 Ostrich 45 Hummingbird 30-47 Duck 44-59 Swift 60-200 Compared to... Tortoise 2 Hare 35 Cheetah 43-70 Speeding bullet 900

The Magellan penguin is the only bird that migrates by swimming. Each year it makes a 5,000-mile round trip by water, between its breeding grounds in Tierra del Fuego and the coast of Brazil.

Migrating ducks and geese often fly in V-shaped formations, with the lead bird at the point of the V, and up to twenty-five followers flapping along behind. The V, scientists believe, is a way of saving energy during long migratory flights. Each bird flies in the upwash of its neighbor's beating wings, and this extra bit of supporting wind increases lift. Birds in a V can fly up to 70 percent farther than a bird on its own.

The following item from the Associated Press appeared in the Grand Rapids (MI) Press last winter:

Alcohol overdose blamed for scores of California bird deaths

"Authorities are blaming alcohol for the deaths of more than 100 robins that dropped out of trees and onto sidewalks and porches. It appears the birds died after eating berries that had fermented on the branch because of unusually cold weather. Martha Bentley at the Bird Rescue Center figured out the cause after taking a quick look at the birds scattered near large maple trees. All had purple stains on their beaks. Recent cold weather allowed privet berries, deep purple berries that are a favorite food of robins, to remain on the trees longer than normal. That allowed the berry juice to ferment and become quite potent. In addition to the robins, seven cedar waxwings were found dead. "They went on a toot with the berries, so to speak", said Ms. Bentley."

Unlike other birds, parrots use their feet like hands, to grasp food and carry it up to their mouths. And like people, parrots prefer one "hand" over the other. Some parrots are right-handed, and some are left-handed.

The only known poisonous bird in the world is the hooded pitohui - pronounced "pit-oo-ey" - of Papua, New Guinea. The pitohui's poison, similar to the toxin found in poison dart frogs, is concentrated in its skin and feathers. Scientists think the poison is probably a defense against predators like hawks and snakes.

Birds have enormous eyes. Your eyes make up less than 1% of the weight of your head. A starling's eyes make up 15% of its head weight. Owls have the biggest eyes of all birds, relative to the size of their heads. If you were an owl, your eyes would weigh several pounds.

While some birds are nest pirates, stealing nests for themselves and kicking out the original owners, other birds manage to share. Some raptors let smaller birds like house sparrows build small nests on their larger nesting platforms. The sparrows then act as living burglar alarms, alerting their powerful neighbors at the approach of intruders. The raptors protect the sparrows from predators, and the sparrows themselves are safe because they're so close to home. Raptors usually don't hunt near their own nests.

A crowd of cows is called a herd. Wolves run in packs, fish swim in schools, and bees fly in swarms. Did you know that there are special names for different groups of birds?