Ask a Biologist Q&A - Birds

birds and unfertilised egg laying ie chickens

dummy@example.com (Phil Leftwich) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:18:38 +0000

Chickens continually lay eggs even without any mating. How can this be? Have they been selectively bred to do this ? If so how can this egg laying be brought about without coitus which, I assume stimulates the egg laying as in all the garden birds that we see. None of them lay eggs without any mating ! Or do they? Do wild chickens lay unfertilised eggs. Do any other birds wild or domesticated lay eggs without any previos mating. Thanks in advance. Your site is really improved not. Great job. Eileen**

Teeth in birds

dummy@example.com (Neil Gostling) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:39:03 +0000

We all know modern birds don't possess teeth having lost them back in prehistory probably to loes weight for flight. But it has been shown that birds still possess the genes for growng teeth but they are switched of during early develpoment. Is it possible for birds to reactivate these genes and grow teeth or can this only be done through gentic engineering?

quacks of ducks

dummy@example.com (Phil Leftwich) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:50:54 +0000

Again and again I hear the statement - by people who really mean it - that 'the quacks of ducks don't have an echo'. To me it's like saying 'birds can't walk backwards'. You explained to me that because we don't observe them doing it doesn't mean they can't walk backwards.
I, for my part, have never heard the echo of a duck's quack but that doesn't mean that it doesn't echo.
Is this a good argument?
A sound is a sound whether it's a gunshot or a duck's quack if the soundwaves bounce off a wall and back to me - voila - there is an echo.
Or am I missing something?

How to keep nesting birds happy in a busy area.

dummy@example.com (David Hone) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:29:22 +0000

I live in suburban Perth, Western Australia and last year a pair of honeyeaters nested right next to our front door in a tall pot plant, less than a foot from the front doorbell button!. We think they are Singing honeyeaters. We made a large sign asking everyone to use the back door and the eggs all hatched, and the chicks left the nest successfully.
Well, they are now back and seem to be renovating the old nest! I am delighted but would like to know if I have to again ask everyone to use the back door! Is this unecessary and am I going too far?!!
They also seem to be taking their time with renovating their house. They don't seem in a hurry... bit like my husband!! Please advise. :) Thankyou.

bird behaviour

dummy@example.com (Ed Drewitt) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:51:39 +0000

Seagulls appear to be greedy quarrelsome birds! Yet I have often noticed that when I try to surreptitiously slip a lone seagull some food it without fail sets up a screeching cacophony attracting loads of other seagulls, as it sets about the food - often ending up with nothing or next to nothing!
Do they 'share' food in this way?

Clutch size and timed hatching

dummy@example.com (Ed Drewitt) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:41:41 +0000

I understand that some birds such as blue tits want their eggs to hatch within a day or two of each other and that they do this by delaying incubation until last egg is layed. I wondered if you can explain how these birds, especially those with large clutch sizes, keep the eggs viable and alive during those early days when incubation isn't happening.

Parrots mimickry

dummy@example.com (Carlos Grau) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:46:21 +0000

Why do parrots mimic people. I heard a story (on QI perhaps) that they do not mimic in the wild. Is this true? Why do some parrots talk and not others. The eclectus for example will talk for hours and learn a hundred plus words sometimes.

Intermediaries between hopping and walking locomotion in small birds.

dummy@example.com (Peter Falkingham) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:14:01 +0000

Some birds walk, and others (small perching birds) hop while on the ground.

Hopping locomotion seems to be the derived condition among the two. At what point and how did this develop? How did the intermediary forms move? What are the muscular and skeletal derivations that support this?

jackdaw EPC

dummy@example.com (Alistair Wilson) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:11:45 +0000

Is it true that jackdaws have no extra-pair copulation? Seems implausible.

chicken eggs

dummy@example.com (Heather Doran) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:27:19 +0000

do chickens only lay one egg per day

Birds hunting in packs

dummy@example.com (Carlos Grau) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:54:31 +0000

Are there any species of birds that hunt much like wolves or wild dogs in Africa, in packs? If not, why?

If I touch a bird.

dummy@example.com (John Steemson) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:38:40 +0000

I found a baby bird in our backyard and my dog almost ate it but luckily my mom was there and she saved it, now it keeps coming back. We were thinking about keeping it since it was VERY small. My mom says that if you touch a bird then its mom will kill it. I was wondering if that was true. Biologist touch wild birds all the time.

bird evolution

dummy@example.com (Joe Daniel) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:09:33 +0000

At what stage in bird evolution were gastralia and belly ribs lost? Why - was it just to reduce weight, or are there other plausible hypotheses?

Why do vultures have bald heads but not other carnivorous birds?

dummy@example.com (Alistair Wilson) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:24:28 +0000

They say vultures have featherless heads to keep clean, so they don't get blood and bits of meat stuck in their feathers. But hawks, and eagles, and other carnivorous birds also have to deal with bloody prey, so how come they don't need a bald head as well?

My first thought was that it had to do with disease, since carrion that's been sitting around for a while would probably have a lot more disease-carrying bugs and bacteria and things that they would not want to get in their feathers. But eagles and hawks will eat carrion too if they find it, won't they? Wouldn't that be a problem for them as well?

Thanks in advance for any answers! This is just something I've been curious about for a while

Raptor droppings

dummy@example.com (Phil Leftwich) — Mon, 31 May 2010 11:19:11 +0000

Do raptor droppings contain any actual faecal material, or is it all just uric acid? What about owls?