💡 Birds — Fun Facts

The wandering albatross has the longest wings of any bird.

Its wings can stretch wider than a small car is long, helping it glide over the sea for hours.

The ostrich lays the biggest eggs of any bird alive today.

One ostrich egg is bigger than your two hands together and weighs as much as many chicken eggs.

Ducks have waterproof feathers, so water rolls right off.

Ducks spread oil over their feathers with their beaks, keeping them dry even in the rain.

A pelican has a stretchy pouch under its beak to scoop up fish.

The big pouch works like a net to catch fish, then drains out the water before the pelican swallows.

Some parrots can learn to copy words and sounds they hear.

Parrots are clever and can repeat whistles, words, and even the sound of a doorbell.

A penguin can't fly in the air, but it "flies" through the water.

Penguins use their wings like flippers to zoom and glide underwater to catch fish.

Flamingos are pink because of the food they eat.

They eat tiny shrimp and algae that have pink coloring inside. That is what slowly turns their feathers pink.

The ostrich is the biggest bird in the world.

An ostrich can grow taller than a grown-up and is far too heavy to fly — but it can run about 70 km/h, faster than any other bird on land.

The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world.

It is only about 5–6 cm long and weighs less than a coin. Its tiny eggs are about the size of a coffee bean.

The Arctic tern makes the longest journey of any animal.

Every year this little seabird flies from the Arctic all the way to Antarctica and back — about 70,000 km — so it enjoys two summers a year.

The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on Earth.

When it folds its wings and dives to catch food, a peregrine falcon can reach over 380 km/h (240 mph) — faster than a race car.

A group of flamingos is called a “flamboyance.”

Lots of animal groups have fun names — a group of owls is a “parliament” and a group of frogs is an “army.”

A hummingbird's heart can beat more than 1,000 times a minute.

Hummingbirds beat their wings up to about 80 times every second, and their tiny hearts race to keep up. They're the only birds that can fly backwards, and they have to eat almost constantly to fuel all that energy.

A group of owls is called a 'parliament'.

The name comes from old stories that pictured owls as wise creatures gathering like a council. Owls can also turn their heads about 270 degrees, which helps them look around because their eyes can't move in their sockets like ours.

A group of flamingos is called a 'flamboyance'.

Flamingos are pink because of what they eat — tiny algae and shrimp full of natural pink-orange pigments. A baby flamingo is actually born grey and slowly turns pink over its first couple of years.