BIRDS  -  EGGS  -  NESTS
Bird     -      Vertebrate      -      Omnivore
                                                                                            Birds ...
                                                                                                  For the following birds, click on the button below ...
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BIRD OF PREY
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COCKATEIL
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COCKATOO
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BALD EAGLE
General
     Male   ...................................   Cock
     Female  ...............................   Hen
     Young   ................................   Chick

Bobwhite Quails
    Male .....................................   Bob
    Female ................................   Betty
    Young ................C hick. Fledgling 

​Cranes
     Male  ...................................   Crane
     Female  ..............................   Crane
     Young  ......................   Chick. Colt

Doves
     Male   ....................................   Cock
     Female   ...............................   Hen
     Young   .................   Chick.  Squal

Ducks
     Male  ..................................   Drake
     Female  ....................   Duck.  Hen
     Young    ........................   Duckling 

Eagles
     Male   ...................................  Eagle
     Female   ..............................  Eagle
     Young  ............ Eaglet.  Fledgling

Falcons and Hawks
     Male  .....................  Tierce. Tercel
     Female   ............................. Falcon
     Young  ...............................  Eyas

Gulls
     Male  ....................................  Cock
     Female   ..............................  Hen
     Young  .................  Chick.  Scorrie

Guinea Fowl
     Male  ....................................  Cock
     Female ................................  Hen
     Young   ...............................  Chick

Owls
     Male  .....................................  Owl
     Female    ..............................  Owl
     Young   .......  Fledgling.   Owlet                                                               Partridge
     Male  ....................................  Cock
     Female   ...........  Hen. Chantelle
     Young  .................................  Chick

Peacock
     Male  ..............................  Peacock
     Female ..........................  Peahen
     Young   ..........................  Peachick

Puffins
     Young   ………………….   Pufflings

Quelea
     Male   ...................................  Cock
     Female  ...............................  Hen
     Young  .................................  Chick

Turkeys
     Male  ...…  Torn.  Gobbler. Slag.
                       Jake
     Female   ...............................   Hen
     Young   ...............................    Poult
SIMILES
  1. As bald as a coot
  2. As blythe as a bird
  3. As freckled as a turkey egg
  4. As furious as an eagle
  5. As harmless as a dove 
  6. As happy as a lark
  7. As sharp as a hawk
  8. As sick as a parrot
  9. As tender as a chicken
  10. As wise as an owl
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Bobwhite Quail
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A HONEYGUIDE
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A FAIRYWREN
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A PUFFIN
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ROBIN
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GREEN PARROTS
IDIOMS, METAPHORS AND EXPRESSIONS
General
  1. A bird
  2. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
  3. A bird of ill omen
  4. A box of birds
  5. A pigeon hole
  6. A rare bird
  7. A round-robin
  8. A wet bird never flies at night
  9. A little bird told me
  10. An early bird catches the worm
  11. An odd bird
  12. An old bird
  13. Bird's eye view
  14. Birds in their little nest agree
  15. Birds of a feather
  16. Birds of a feather flock together
  17. Birds of the air b
  18. Bird of passage
  19. Blue bird of happiness
  20. Early bird
  21. Eat like a bird
  22. Fine feathers make a fine bird
  23. Flying start
  24. Free as a bird
  25. Get the bird
  26. Give somebody the bird
  27. Happy as a box of birds
  28. In the first flight
  29. It's a bird!
  30. Jail-bird
  31. Like a bird
  32. It's a ill bird that fouls in its own nest
  33. Kill two birds with one stone
  34. Nest egg
  35. Strictly for the birds
  36. Sweet bird of youth
  37. The birds and the bees
  38. The bird has flown
  39. The eagle has landed
  40. To charm the birds out of a tree
  41. To fly high
  42. To fly the coop
  43. To kill two birds with one stone
  44. To knock someone off one's perch
  45. To rule the roost
  46. To come home to roost
  47. To stick in one's gizzard
  48. To take flight
  49. Watch the birdie
  50. 'Who killed Cock Robin'

Albatrosses:
  1. To have an albatross around one's neck

​Chickens
  1. Bet on a lame rooster
  2. Chicken out of (something)
  3. Chicken!
  4. Chicken-and-egg situation
  5. Chicken in every pot
  6. Chicken feed
  7. Chicken hearted
  8. Chicken skin
  9. Cock and bull story
  10. Cocks may crow but it's the hen that lays the egg
  11. Don't count your chickens
  12. Feeling like a rooster in a hen house
  13. Fits like a stocking on a chicken;s lip
  14. Hen party
  15. Is that a chicken joke?
  16. Like a chicken with its head cut off
  17. Like a hen with one chicken
  18. Like a hen-pecked husband
  19. No spring chicken
  20. Mad as a wet hen
  21. Pecking order
  22. The chickens come home to roost
  23. The pecking order
  24. To chicken out of (something)
  25. To count one's chickens before they hatch
  26. To rule the roost
  27. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Cockerels
  1. A cock and bull story
  2. A cock-eyed scheme
  3. A cock sparrow
  4. Cock-a-hoop
  5. Cock-of-the-walk
  6. Cock sparrow
  7. That cock won't fight
  8. This beats cock-fighting
  9. To be all cock-a-hoop
  10. To cock a snook at
  11. To cock up
  12. To go off at half cock
  13. To live like fighting cocks
  14. To take a cockshot at

Crows
  1. A scarecrow
  2. As the crow flies
  3. Crow's feet
  4. Stone the crows
  5. To crow over
  6. To eat crow
  7. To have a crow with (someone)
  8. To pluck a crow   

Cuckoo
  1. A cuckoo in the nest 
  2. Cloud cuckoo land
  3. The first cuckoo

Dove
  1. Get 'lovey-dovey'
  2. Lovey-dovey
  3. The dove of peace
  4. To be as gentle as a dove
  5. To flutter the dovecotes
  6. The wings of a dove                                                                                                          
Ducks
  1. A box of fluffy ducks
  2. A dead duck 
  3. A duck's egg
  4. A duck in a thunderstorm
  5. A lame duck
  6. A sitting duck
  7. An ugly duckling
  8. Biggest duck in the puddle
  9. Break one's duck
  10. Duck in a thunderstorm
  11. Duck out 
  12. Duck soup
  13. Ducky
  14. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck
  15. It's the duck's gut
  16. Lame duck
  17. Like a duck to water
  18. Like a dying duck
  19. Like a pair of ducks
  20. Like a sitting duck
  21. Like water off a duck's back
  22. To break one's duck
  23. To play ducks and drakes with

Eagle
  1. Eagle-eyed
  2. Legal eagle
  3. The eagle has landed

Eggs
  1. A good egg
  2. A bad egg
  3. As sure as eggs is eggs
  4. Chicken-and-egg
  5. Egg head
  6. Egg me on
  7. Goose egg
  8. He that would have eggs, must endure the cackling of hens
  9. Nest egg
  10. Suck eggs
  11. Skunk egg
  12. To have egg on one's face
  13. To kill the goose that laid the golden egg
  14. To put all one's eggs in one basket
  15. To teach one's grandmother to suck eggs
  16. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs
  17. Walk on eggshells

Feathers and Wings
  1. A feather in one's hat/cap
  2. Birds of a feather (flock together)
  3. Fine feathers make fine birds
  4. In a fine feather
  5. Light as a feather
  6. To be spitting feathers
  7. To clip someone's wings
  8. To cut a feather
  9. To feather one's nest
  10. To make someone's hackles rise
  11. To make the feathers fly
  12. To show the white feather
  13. To smooth ruffled feathers
  14. To ruffle someone's feathers
  15. To take someone under one's wings
  16. You could knock me down with a feather

Geese
  1. A wild goose chase
  2. All one's geese are swans
  3. As often as a goose goes barefoot
  4. Doesn't have the sense God gave geese
  5. Goose bumps
  6. Goose flesh
  7. Goose-step
  8. Kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
  9. Say boo to a goose
  10. Slick as goose grease
  11. To cook one's goose
  12. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander
  13. What is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander
  14. Wild goose chase

Hawks
  1. Hawk-eyed
  2. Hawks and doves
  3. To know a hawk from a hacksaw
  4. To watch like a hawk

Hens
  1. Hen party
  2. Hen-pecked husband
  3. Like a hen with one chicken


Jays
  1. Jay-walker

Larks
  1. Happy as a alark
  2. To be up with the lark 
  3. To have a lark
  4. To lark about

Magpies
  1. To chatter like a magpie

Mockingbird
1.    To kill a mockingbird

Nests
  1. A cuckoo in the nest
  2. A nest egg
  3. To feather one's nest
  4. To foul one's (own) nest
  5. To stir up a hornets' nest

Ostrich
  1. Like an ostrich with its head in the sand
  2. Ostrich-like
  3. Ostrich belief
  4. Ostrich policy

Owls
  1. A night owl
  2. A solemn owl
  3. A wise old owl
  4. I wasn't brought up in the woods to be scared by owls
  5. Owly!

Parrot
  1. A dead parrot
  2. Parrot-fashion
  3. Parrots and monkeys
  4. To have a mouth like the bottom of a parrot's cage

Phoenix ... a fictitious bird
  1. Like a pheonix from the ashes

Pigeons
  1. A clay pigeon
  2. Stool pigeon
  3. Not my pigeon
  4. Pigeon-toed
  5. Pluck a pigeon
  6. Put the cat among the pigeons
  7. To pigeon hole

Robins
  1. A round robin
  2. Who killed Cock Robin

Swallow
  1. One swallow does not make a summer

Swans
  1. All someone's swans are geese
  2. Swan-song

Turkeys
  1. Cold turkey
  2. Stop cold turkey
  3. To talk turkey

Vultures
  1. To be like a vulture
SIMILES
Bird:
  1. As blithe as a bird
  2. As free as a bird

Chicken:
  1. As tender as a chicken

Coot:
  1. As bald as a coot

Dodo: 
  1. As dead as a dodo

Dove:
  1. As gentle as a dove
  2. As innocent as a dove

Duck:
  1. As a duck to water
  2. As lame as a duck
  3. Like a sitting duck
  4. As readily and as naturally as duckling take to water

Jay Bird:
  1. As naked as a jay bird

Owl:
  1. As drunk as a boiled owl
  2. As wise as an owl

Parrot:
  1. As sick as a parrot

Peacock:
  1. As happy as a peacock
  2. As proud as a peacock
  3. As vain as a peacock

Turkey:
  1. As freckled as a turkey's egg

Turtle Dove:
  • As gentle as a turtle dove

Egg:
  1. As innocent as a new laid egg
  • Are warm blooded, like mammals.  Can be found everywhere in the world, including Antarctica
  • Live in trees, on the ground, in forests and in the deserts
  • Most eat twice their body weight each day
  • Eat plants and insects.  Some eat only fish (kingfishers), whilst others eat only seeds and fruit (parrots)
  • Some birds cannot fly, including:
    Penguins - Cassowary - Emus  -  Ostriches -        
    Kakapo Parrot   -   Kiwis   -   Turkeys   -   Rhea 
  • Usually sleep standing up, unless they are in a nest
  • Will tuck its head under its wing to sleep
  • Walk, if they are mainly ground birds
  • Hop, is they are mainly tree birds
  • Crows can remember individual human faces for year after an encounter
  • Can drink salt water
  • Can recognise landmarks
  • Cannot burp
  • Urban birds have learned to line their nests with cigarette butts.  Nicotine is a powerful insecticide that wards off mites, lice and fleas
  • The remains of birds hit by aeroplanes are known as 'snare'
  • The fastest known muscle in nature is found in the throats of songbirds
  • There are 40 different muscle in a bird's wing
  • The bird with the largest vocabulary was Puck the Budgie, who dies in 1998.  He knew 1,728 words (the same as a 4 year old child)
  • Pigeons' bones weigh less than their feathers
  • Omithophobia is the fear of birds
  • The Antpitta Avis Canis Ridgley bird barks like a dog
  • Buzzards can see small rodents from a height of 15,000 ft.
  • The fastest flying bird is the Peregrine Falcon, flying at a speed of between 168-217 miles per hour
  • Five years of research at the University of Washington has shown that crows can remember faces - especially those who pose a threat to them.  They also invite other crows to join them to take revenge upon their attackers
  • Some birds use ants to clean their feathers, as the ants squirt formic acid which kills parasites
  • Birds can recognise landmarks 
  • Kiwis are the only known birds to have nostrils at the tip of their beak
  • Birds practise their songs quietly in private before they perform them in public
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The Bald Eagle became America's national symbol when it was placed on the great sealing in 1782.  One member of Congress, Benjamin Franklin, did not support the Bald Eagle selection.  He thought that the should have selected a more uniquely American bird, such as the Turkey.
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Alpine Swifts
  • Alpine swifts migrate annually from Switzerland to Africa and can fly non-stop for 6 months, being the air almost 100% of the time.

Arctic Tern
  • The Arctic Tern flies between the South Pole and the North Pole in order to spend the summer in each

Doves and Pigeons
  • Can be found in all climates, except the harshest - Sahara Desert and Antarctica.  
  • Eat mostly seeds, nuts and fruits.  
  • Have no gall bladder.
  • Have a cultural importance in some countries and religions - and are a symbol of hope at weddings and celebrations
  • Young Doves and Pigeons are called Squabs 
  • There are about 310 species. 

Emus
  • Run after rain clouds, hoping for water
  • Have three toes on each foot
  • Have the strongest legs among the animal kingdom
  • Can defend themselves with a tremendously powerful forward kick
  • Eat caterpillars, grasshoppers, flowers, fruit, seeds, burrs, lizards and small rodents 
  • Swallow pebbles to grind the food in their gizzards

Fairywrens
  • The Fairywren teaches its chicks to sing while they are still in the egg

Flamingos
  • The main predators of flamingos are zookeepers
  • A flamingo can only eat when its head is upside down
  • Can bend their knees backwards
  • Are able to fly at a speed of 55 kilometres per hour
  • Can live up to 80 years
  • Are born grey, then change to pink because of their diet
  • Are born with straight bills that curve with age
  • There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones

Honeyguides
  • Will lead other animals - especially the Honey Badger - to beehives
  • They will then wait for the animal to break open the beehive - and have its fill
  • When the animal leaves, the Honeyguide will fly in and eat the leftover larvae and beeswax
  • They are also known to lead humans to honey, so that they can feed on the scraps left behind.

Hummingbirds
  • A hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards
  • Hummingbirds have 2,000 meals a day and hibernate every night
  • Hummingbird flap their wings about 80 times a second
  • A hummingbird weighs less than a penny
  • One of the enemies of the tiny hummingbird is a preying mantis
  • A hummingbird's heart beats at over 1,000 times per minute
  • Hummingbirds cannot walk
  • The smallest bird is the 'Bee Hummingbird' found in Cuba
  • Hummingbirds lay eggs the size of peas

Kestrels
  • Kestrels can locate a vole from the sky because of ultra-violet light reflected in its urine

Kiwis
  • Are virtually blind, relying on their senses of touch and smell rather than vision when they forage

Maribou Storks
  • The black legs of a Marabou stork usually appear to be white because they are covered in excrement

New Zealand Keas
  • The New Zealand Kea likes to eat the strips of rubber from around car windows

Nightingales
  • Nightingales can remember over 200 different songs
  • A nightingale's song can be louder than a chainsaw

Ostriches
  • Ostriches lay the largest eggs - its egg equals 24 chicken eggs in size and takes about two hours to boil
  • An ostrich's egg is bigger than its brain
  • An ostrich has the largest eyes of any bird and the eyes are bigger than their brains 
  • Ostriches do not bury their head in the sand

Owls
  • Snowy owls can turn their heads almost in a complete circle
  • Owls are one of the only birds who can see the colour blue
  • Owls sunbathe

Parrots
  • Parrots can live for 80 years
  • African Grey Parrots have vocabularies of over 200 words
  • Can see behind themselves without moving their heads
  • Are the only birds which can pass food to their mouth with their toes

Penguins and Puffins
  • Penguins can jump 6ft into the air
  • Penguins cannot taste fish
  • Penguins travel great distances on land and often toboggan on their bellies, using their feet and wings for propulsion
  • Penguins are the only birds that can swim but cannot fly
  • Penguins huddle together in the harsh Antarctic winter.  
  • Penguins only have one mate their entire life and 'propose' by giving a pebble
  • Nearly 3% of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine
  • At sea, Emperor Penguins ca dive to a depth of 1,800 ft
  • Puffins can fly underwater
  • Gentoo penguins propose to their life mates with a pebble as a gift
  • Iceland has 25 puffins for every human

Vultures
  • Can turn a dead body into a skeleton in under five hours

Woodpeckers
  • Woodpeckers don't get headaches from all the pecking as they have air pockets in their skulls have to cushion the brain
  • Woodpeckers peck at about 20 times per second
  • Woodpeckers tongue can wrap around its head twice
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
Cockatoos
      A chattering of cockatoos    
     A crackle of cockatoos
 
Coots
     A co-operation of coots
     A covert of coots            
     A commotion of coots     
     A cover of coots
     A fleet of coots                
     A flock of coots
     A pod of coots                 
     A raft of coots
     A rasp of coots
     A swarm of coots

Cormorant     
      A gulp of cormorants       
      A flight of cormorants

Crane     
     A flock of cranes      
     A sedge of cranes            
     A siege of cranes
     A herd of cranes

Crow    
     A caucus of crows
     A cauldron of crows
     A congress of crows
     A horde of crows
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FLAMINGOES WITH CHICKS
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THE BEAUTIFUL SUNBIRD
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A HUMMINGBIRD
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NIGHTINGALE
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A HOMING PIGEON
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A ZEBRA DOVE
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ANTPITTA AVIS CANIS RIDGLEY
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THE SIX-WIRED BIRD OF PARADISE, thought to be extinct until rediscovered in 2006 in the Indonesian jungle
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DOVE
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YELLOW BIRD
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WEAVER BIRD
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HUMMING BIRD
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A PAIR OF ATLANTIC PUFFINS
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AFRICAN CROWNED CRANE
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AMAZON PARROT
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WIDGEON
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SEAGULLS
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ALBINO PEACOCK
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PEACOCK
FLIGHTLESS BIRDS
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EMU
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CASSOWARY
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KAKAPO PARROTS from NEW ZEALAND
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OSTRICH
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RHEA
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TURKEY
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PENGUINS
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KIWI