flyingdata

Subject
Aerial Display	The male paradise whydah has tail feathers three times the length of its body. During breeding the male displays by flapping the female with its tail rising and falling. At the end of the breeding season the mail moults and loses long tail feathers, making it easier to fly.
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Birds of Prey	About 280 of the world's bird species belong to day flying birds, or birds of prey. A few - like vultures - feed on carrion, and a few like palm nut vultures and honey buzzards are wholly dependent on flesh food. Most raptors kill prey by striking or clutching, holding it in their talons and tear it with powerful hooked bills or swallow it whole. The large raptors - condors, vultures, eagles and buzzards - all soar hundreds of miles a day with little use of power. Eagles can dive fast and in one blow of their powerful talons, clutch, kill, and carry off an animal almost their own weight. The snake-catching Secretary bird of the African veldt is the sole survivor of a family which includes two extinct species
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Flapping Flight	A woodpecker flaps its wings in short bursts as it flies along. When they are closed up and held close to the body, the bird falls. Many birds shut their wings for short "rests" during flapping flight. Often these rests are so brief they are not noticed.
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Fruit & Seed Eaters	The nomads of the forest are of many kinds, representing about 30 bird species. Tropical forests abound in birds of excellent plumage. Fruit pigeons,( Papua ) Chestnut Eared Aracari, ( South Africa) Orange Wattled Bird of Paradise (Papua) Yellow Breasted Fig Bird (Australia) Cuban Crogan, Cream backed Tanager (Central & South America), common Touraco (Africa) Blossom-Headed Parrot (or Plumhead) Sth Asia, Double Toothed Barbet (Africa) - are each a member of a different bird family or species. All roam in flocks, moving round in groups, (sometimes of several species mixed) in search of fruit in season. When fruit in a certain area is finished, they move on to another crop. Their colours and raucous language have a purpose. Clumps of fruit are shareable treasures and often are a long way apart. By working in groups and with the aid of violent cries this enables them to recognise their own kinds at a distance. In Northern lands, very few families outside waxwings are primarily fruit eaters, and even include insects as well as berries and seedpods in their diets. Most of the 28 species of Old World Orioles (natives of Africa, tropical Asia, East Indies and Australia) are treetop foragers and they also eat insects. Black naped Orioles winter in Malaysia and Indonesia and visit as far North as Manchuria in summer. Highly coloured Tanagers of the Americas are mainly fruit eaters, but include insects and berries. Temperate land tends to produce more seeds than fruit, while the rice eating bobolink, a migrant from Argentina and other parts of South America invade the rice belt of Louisiana
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Hovering	This uses a great deal of energy and apart from humming birds, few birds can hover long in still air. The kestrel hovers by flying into the wind at exactly the same speed as the wind blowing against it. The two speeds cancel each other out and the kesrtel remains stationary.
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How Birds Steer	Birds use their tails for steering and braking. When pigeons fly through woodland, the tail feathers fan out like a rudder to steer clear of the trees. When in open country, and in a straight line, the tail feathers close up.
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How many Birds	More than 100million birds are teeming throughout the world. They live from the Arctic pack ice to tropical rain forests, and nest in places as different as shopping centres ands mountain slopes. Of these, birds are the highest, fastest and furtherest flyers. Some birds can stay airborne for months without landing. Birds are the only living creatures which have feathers.
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How many species	There are about 9000 species alive today. They are divided into families, or groups of species related to each other. Certain features stand out, size, shape, the way it flies, how it feeds and how it rears young.
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Human Invaders	Since the first human invaders set foot in America 15000 or more years ago, there has been a marked decline in the mammalian fauna. 60 species have become extinct, more than 50 of them by about 5000 BC
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Insect Eaters	There are 100million species of insects, with only a handful being marine. Honey guides are specialists in the nests of bees and wasps, eating wax as well as insects. Some forest kingfishers eat centipedes and millipedes as well as large beetles. Of 160 living bird families, no less than 128 have insect eating members. Of these 34 eat insects mainly, and another 10 eat insects and snails wholly.
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Owls	These raptors of dusk, night and dawn are related in no way to day raptors. They kill with powerful talons, but nearly all overtake their prey by stealth. They are silent on the wing. Their eyes are highly adapted to night vision. Their huge ears are asymmetrical and arranged for scanning the range and direction of sounds.
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More on Owls	There are about 130 species of owls, divided into two families. Some hunt during the day and night. They are found all over the world. except Antarctic and remote islands.
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Nectar Eaters	In a very real sense we can say flowers have more interest in birds than birds in flowers, for while few birds eat flowers, many nectar feeders play an important part in pollination
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Omnivores	Many animal eaters switch to wild fruits in season. The yellow-bellied Cuckoo of America eats elder, mulberry and grapes in season - in tropical Asia insect eating cuckoo shrikes and babblers eat fruit when berries fall and guavas and figs are ripe. In Australia, too, insectivorous silver-eyes are quite important orchard pests when figs, grapes and soft fruit are ready for market. Grain and insect eating Sulphur Crested cockatoos eat watermelons (picking open a hole to allow the lorikeets easy access) and thus damaging the crop. These are helped by Red tailed Black Cockatoos and other fruit eaters. Many plant eating birds switch to insects when rearing young, giving offspring extra protein
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Perching Birds	Perching birds have special feet, which lock tight when they land on a branch. Half the world's birds including larks, swallows, finches, warblers and parrots are perching birds. Most of these are known as song birds.
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Sea Birds	In all 260 species or 3% of all living birds are adapted to life in the wetlands Most seabirds live on plankton or fish. Most are plankton feeders. Secondary sea birds have more varied diets. Eider ducks are adapted to eating molluscs from the bottom where the sea is relatively shallow. Most fully oceanic species feed as far from land as any animal can get, and drink salt water exclusively; cormorants, boobies, albatross, and petrels get rid of excess salt by concentrating the sea water they drink, into a strong salt solution in special glands in their heads, and then excreting it through their nostrils. Some large albatross spend the first 9 years of their lives without resting on land at all. Seabirds have long adolescence before they can breed - time to learn how to navigate the trackless ocean.
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Soaring	When the sun warms the air, it rises in columns called thermals. Some birds such as the Andean Condor save energy and hitch a ride by soaring on the rising air. When it reaches the top of one thermal, it glides gently downwards to the bottom of the next one.
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Take off styles	A robin jumps from its perch into the air to get airborne. The male quetzel from Central America takes off with a backward hop, to prevent the long tail feathers from tangling with branches. Many game birds such as pheasants, take off with a vertical leap if danger threatens.
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Water birds	About one in 10 of the world's bird species are specially adapted for life on the water - special waterproofing keeps them dry and many have webbed feet.
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Ansireformes	These birds - ducks, geese and swans, eat grain when it is available. Most game birds are grain eaters and some eat berries and the most common bird in the world, the domestic fowl, is primarily a grain eater.
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Too fat to fly	Parent gannets feed their young such an over supply of food, they scramble off the cliff and drop into the sea. They swim south for the winter, shedding the extra fat, which enables them to become airborne and fly home.
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Waders	There are 200 species of waterbirds which are waders and have long legs and beaks, striding into the water, sweeping their upturned beaks from side to side in search for food.
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Water birds	There are 200 species of waterbirds which are waders and have long legs and beaks, striding into the water, sweeping their upturned beaks from side to side in search for food.