Thursday 28 June 2012

NATURE'S WONDER-BIRDS

Bird is an animal with wings and feathers .Birds vary in size from the 2-inch long to bee humming bird of Cuba to the African ostrich which may rich 8 ft in height .The largest flying bird is the condor of south America.It has,very often a wing spread of 11 ft.it is able to carry a young lamb .
Among birds,the largest group is land birds.These birds usually live on land,weather they can fly or not.The non fliers are large and heavy birds.These can only run fast to escape their enemies.These include the ostrich,the emu of Australia,the rhea of south America ,and cassowary of new Guinea.
The bird that live on the ground ,but can fly if they need to, include the quail ,turkeys ,bustards ..

most land birds live on trees and other high places .it makes them safer from their predators .

these include ,for example ,song birds and robins ,sparrows ,larks ,starling .crows ,pigeons ,ravens etc.the longed winged swifts and frigate birds can not walk .when they are left on the ground .they cannot take off.

the frigate birds lands on cliffs and takes off by falling over the edge .it lives near the sea,but its feathers are not water proofed .so it can never alight on water .all these birds are diurnal.. they are awake during the day and sleep by night .

the nocturnal birds do the opposite .their eyes glow brightly .night owls ,night gars etc.
come under this category .water birds depend on salt and fresh water ,some water birds such as penguin ,which has only stubby flippers cannot fly but can swim ,underwater cormorants can fly but can use their their feet while swimming under water  auks use their wings to swim .
petrels can swim with their swim so fast and can take off straight from water into air .some birds such as ducks and grabs stay on the surface of water .some birds such as stroks ,flamingos ,herons are waders .

some salt birds such as gulls swoop down but do not dive to catch fish  .another group is the birds of prey .these include eaglers and hawks which feed on smaller birds and land animals .owls are also birds of prey .cultures lives on carions ,or dead animals .


birds eats the wide variety of foods .apart from birds of prey and fish eating water birds ,most birds eat insects and and seed insect eating birds are generally very useful to man .they keep down the numbers of harmful insects that would destroy crops and fruits.swallows ,swifts,and night jars eat in sects which, they catch in flight .woodpeckers eat grubs that they find under the bark of trees .birds that eat seeds are less helpful to man .they also  causes severe damage to crops and garden .some birds eat only the seeds of weeds but most bird do not distinguish between weed and crops 









birds are very adaptable in their eating habits .many birds migrate every year to places where the food is completely different from theeir summer diet  .some eating birds will quickly turn to eating insects if no seeds are available. .................................................................................................................
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...................................................................................thanks a lot and the end

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