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Interesting Facts About Birds for kids: Which is the first bird? What are birds feathers made of? ...

Of all the animals we love, we probably love birds the most. They are often so wonderfully colorful and some sing beautifully. In addition, they are lively, agile and constantly on the move.

Which is the first bird?

The remains of the first bird were found in 1861 in limestone in Bavaria. The second skeleton was discovered in 1877 and almost a century later, in 1956, the third. Significantly, all three skeletons were found at a distance of 15 km.

All three skeletons are thought to have belonged to the same species of Archaeopteryx lithographica, in short archeopteryx. This animal lived 150 million years ago. A weak flyer, it shared characteristics with its dinosaur ancestors.

Archaeopteryx lithographica by durbed

What are birds feathers made of??

If you look closely at the feather, you can see that its base is firm but very flexible at the top. It needs to be very mobile to be able to move in the air. In addition to this base, the feather consists of lateral fringes, "tiny silk twigs," hooked together to form a thick fringe on either side of the base.

If you observe a feather under a microscope, you will see small hooks hooked to the tassels in the same way that the tassels are connected to the base. All tassels have tiny hooks that fit into each other. In this way, the feather is supple and strong overall.


Do all birds build nests to lay eggs?

Bird pups can be divided into two specific groups. Those in the first group are born naked (with few exceptions), blind and completely helpless. All they can do is open their beaks, ask for food, and throw out their feces. They are completely addicted to their parents who constantly bring them food and heat them when it is cold. These birds are called nest builders or squats. All the birds that lay in our gardens are nest builders.

The second group consists of cubs that come into the world in the form of small fluffy balls, with large open eyes. As soon as they dry well, they are able to follow their parents and be sufficient to themselves, although parents initially look after them and let them know if they are in danger. These birds do not make nests. Chickens, for example, are birds that do not build nests.

Birds in nest

Do all birds sit on their eggs??

No!
The cuckoo bird, for example, lays an egg in the nest of some singer bird and leaves it. The singer bird, lying on her own, also lies on the cuckoo's egg. Cuckoos are called bird parasites. There are various types of birds that lay their eggs in the nests of others.
Some birds lay their eggs in the sand and allow the pups to hatch with the help of sunlight. Or, they lay their eggs in the crevices of rocks sunlit all day.

Why do birds need to incubate their eggs?

Birds have to sit on their eggs to keep them warm. The warmth from the parent bird makes sure that the chicks inside develop properly. This is called 'incubation'.

It is commonly thought that a bird simply lies on an egg until it is opened. In fact, since feathers are insulators, most birds transmit their body heat to eggs through the surfaces of the incubator. These are places where there are no feathers, the skin is thinner, there is almost no fatty tissue, and the surface temperature is increased due to a large number of blood vessels. The bird, which begins to lay on its eggs, shakes the feathers off its breasts and settles itself so that the eggs are in contact with its naked breasts. Birds in which both males and females lie alternately on eggs, both have incubator surfaces.

How do baby birds get out of their eggs?

When a baby bird needs to break the shell, a difficult task awaits it: how to break it?
Fortunately, nature has endowed it with a "diamond" or "egg-tooth", a type of small pink protrusion located on the front of the upper jaw, which serves as a glass cutter and is used to make a crack on the shell. Then a lid is created that the chicken must push with all its strength to release itself from the egg, in a process called pipping.

For this action, the bird uses one strong muscle located on its nape that allows it to push off the shell.

A few days after birth, the "diamond" disappears.

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