Bird Odd Behaviors

By:Caiti and Maddie

Introduction Caiti decided to do this project because it was the most interesting project she could think of.

At first Maddie was working with someone else then thought they had too many people in their group so Maddie volunteered to work with someone else. She decided to work with Caiti because

she thought it was also very interesting.

Questions we are trying to answer are... 1. Do birds act odd?

2. What odd birds act odd?

3. Why do they act odd?

References

We used the books "Birds Do The Strangest Things", "Extremely Weird Birds", "The Stake's Field Guide To Eastern Birds", "Petersen Field Guide to Eastern Birds", "Amazing Birds", "Northern Birds", and "Birds We Know". We got on the Internet. We made surveys.

Research

We found a lot of interesting facts. The humming bird is the only bird that can fly upside down, sideways, without going anywhere, and backwards. The European Cuckoo can change the way it flies and its call. The European Cuckoo uses his strategies to lay it's eggs in other bird's nests. The Cowbird also lays it's eggs in other bird's nests. The Hornbill finds a tree with a hole in it. The Hornbill makes a nest in the hole. The female goes into the hole, makes a nest there and stays in there until the eggs have hatched and then she comes out. While she is in there, the male feeds her. The Goldfinch eats upside down. A Nuthatch walks down trees head first. Bowerbirds can make houses. Some Bowerbirds can paint their houses using a stick and some berries. Bowerbirds have gardens containing buttons, flowers, feathers, and berries. The Blue Satin Bowerbird only likes blue things. The Butcherbird hangs food on bushes. When trying to attract a mate, the Prairie Chicken blows up a bubble on it's throat and it changes colors. The Killdeer

acts as if it has a broken wing to protect it's young, so it's enemies will go after her instead of the babies. The Acorn stores acorns in trees to save for later. The Kiwi does not have wings. Sometimes a Robin will hop on one leg. Sometimes a Cardinal makes a nest in flower pots. Sometimes a crow eats flowers. The male Pasta Penguin takes care of it's babies.

Flocks of birds can act together to perform some odd behaviors also. In 1961, a group of Shearwaters attacked a town near Santa Cruz. There are two theories for why this happened. The first one is that it was foggy and the birds could not see. The second theory is that they ate a poisonous algae to make them so violent. Since 1905, birds in Jatinga, India meet at the same place every year during the Monsoon and all that they do is sit there. They don't eat or sleep and if you came to pick one up, it would not resist. They do this until their death and scientists have no theories to explain these actions.

Conclusion

Yes, birds act odd. Some odd behavior birds perform odd behaviors are acting like it has a broken wing or blowing up some thing on it's throat that changes colors. Most of the time, birds act odd to attract a mate. For example the Prarrie Chicken blows up a bubble on it's throat that changes colors. Most of the time birds act odd to protect their babies. For example the Killdeer will like it has a broken arm so a enemy will go after it instead of it's babies. There are 2 reasons birds act odd, to protect it's babies and to attract a mate. Some odd bird behaviors are still unexplained.

Future Ideas

If you decide to continue our research, you will have to do a lot of work. Maybe you will find some very interesting facts that we have not found. You can look back at our research. Some ideas we have for the future are to find out why every year birds come to Jantinga, India to commit suicide. Some birds are very strange.