Think You Eat A Lot? Look At This!

 I read an article in the paper today that talked about bird diets, and how much and what they consume. The old saying about light or picky eaters "Eating like a bird" is not an accurate comparison at all! Birds burn a tremendous amount of energy and calories in flight, so it's important they eat often and in large quantities. I recall some of this from Animal Science classes in school, but it amazed me to see it again.

Here's' some of the facts from the article:

A hummingbird daily consumes over twice it's weight in nectar, or half it's weight in pure sugar.

A pair of loons and their two chicks consume over a ton of fish during the fifteen weeks  of the breeding season.

An 8-pound pelican eats 4 pounds of fish a day.

The black footed  albatross is nicknamed the "feathered pig" because it swallows half pound chunks of shark in one gulp.

Turkeys will eat as much as a pound of nuts or acorns in a single meal.

Robins can eat as much as fourteen feet of earthworms in a day.

Condors and Vultures sometimes eat so much they can't fly.

On a good night, an owl may swallow so many mice or rats that it's stomach can't hold them all. The tail of it's last one might hang out of it's beak until some of the first has been digested!

Eating can also be hazardous to a birds health!:

A red-tailed hawk here in South Dakota flew off with a weasel, that got a death grip on the hawk's throat in midair!

Six common terns died on Long Island in 1962 from swallowing a blow fish.

Golden Eagles have died pursuing porcupine meat.

To put this all into perspective:

 In order to match a hummingbirds daily diet, a full grown adult human would have to eat 370 pounds of of boiled potatoes, or 130 pounds of bread instead of the two pounds of food on average most people eat in a day!

 I'm going to keep these facts in mind come Thanksgiving dinner time. I won't feel so bad about all I ate that way! The one fact I'll try NOT to think about is the 14 feet of earthworms the Robins are dining on that day!

C):-)