Birds from Mars

Howdy! I’m Mars (they/them) and I like birds! This blog is a place for me to empty my head of fun bird facts and photos so I can keep myself from dropping everything to become an ornithologist (for now)

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Photo © Bartlett Tree Experts

It’s getting chillier everyday as we approach the winter season. Do you ever wonder what birds do to stay warm?

One thing that helps out a lot of birds is their use of a countercurrent heat exchange system. This is a system in their bodies that allows their core to stay warm while letting their extremities take on the burden of being cold. Birds do this using their extremely fast blood flow and their feet.

By flowing their blood quickly through their feet and back to their body, they’re able to maintain a colder foot temperature while regulating their body temperature. By removing the need to warm their feet, birds can save a ton of energy which is often in short supply during the winter.

Birds also often pull one leg up into their feathers to prevent major heat loss while staying stable on one foot. By doing this and occasionally swapping their standing foot they’re able to minimize the amount of heat lost through their feet.

Learn more about bird heat exchange systems in this article by the folks over at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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Some of the best singers in Massachusetts!

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Beach babes on Crane Beach, Ipswich MA

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Photo © Lew Harford

Don’t worry, this cardinal isn’t sick, he’s just in the process of molting, a regular and healthy behavior for many birds.

Molting is the process of shedding and replacing their feathers. This can be done for a wide variety of reasons, like getting rid of damaged feathers, replacing their seasonal camouflage, or prepping for upcoming weather conditions.

Molting tends to occur in a gradual pattern, allowing birds to stay flight-ready despite missing some of their ever important flight feathers.

So if you happen to see a bird having a bad hair day like this guy, just know that they’re going to be looking spiffy real soon!

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Photo © Vice

Happy 4th of July everyone! Did you know the bald eagle, the symbol of strength and freedom here in the United States, loves to go dumpster diving?

Some locations around the US provide reliable food sources for bald eagles in the unexpected form of landfills, especially for the large populations of bald eagles in Alaska.

While eagles aren’t known for these scavenging habits, they, like many other birds of prey, are in fact opportunistic scavengers. As such, they’re not too picky about eating both live and dead prey.

As dumpster diving is a lot less energy intensive compared to diving for fish, it’s no wonder why they’d flock to the landfills for their meals! Truly what’s more American than that creative energy saving?

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Photo © citylifetofarmlife

Have you ever seen a chicken seemingly eating small rocks and gravel? Sure enough this normal chicken behavior related to their interesting digestive system.

When a chicken first eats some food, it will move down into their crop. The crop is effectively a food storage pouch for chickens waiting to digest their food. From there it will move to the proventriculus, or their stomach, which will provide digestive fluids much like our own stomachs.

Finally the food will enter the gizzard to be ground up using the rocks and other grit they’ve eaten before. This is a required step for chickens as they have no teeth to grind up their food at the start of the process, so instead they do all of their chewing at the end!

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Photo © Nature Picture Library/Getty

Many birds are known for their strange mating rituals, but have you heard of lekking?

A lek is a collection of male birds engaging in competitive displays to try to win the hearts of visiting ladies.

What this ends up looking like is an elaborate dance off for love, with the winner being hand-selected by the lady of his dreams.

This is commonly seen in black grouse populations all year round, especially during the spring, with this photo showing the fierceness of the competition.