Monk parakeets, also known as Quaker parrots, are adorable green birds that appear in the wild and in captivity. However, if you spot a monk parakeet in North America, they’re not supposed to be there. These birds aren’t native to the continent, yet they keep appearing in the wild. So, why are monk parakeets in North America, and why is it bad that they’re there?
These birds live in Southern South America year-round, which is their native range. They’re typically found near grasslands and water sources across Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. In their native range, they build large stick nests or take over unused existing nests.
Unfortunately, it’s possible to spot these birds outside of South America. Groups of them live in areas of the United States, such as Florida, New York, Illinois, California, Texas, and Louisiana. These birds aren’t part of the native wildlife in the United States, so humans brought them to these regions.
Why are Monk Parakeets in North America?
Quaker parrots are popular in the pet trade, so the wild ones in North America escaped as pets and then reproduced. The first established populations in the United States appeared in the 1960s. As wild North American populations increased, certain locations made them illegal as pets to prevent the invasive species from expanding rapidly.
What States are Monk Parakeets Illegal in?
These birds can make great pets if properly cared for, which is why they became so popular in the pet trade. Yet, their popularity in North America could do more harm than good since pet parakeets keep ending up in the wild and hurting the ecosystem.
Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr.
To prevent these invasive birds from ending up in North America’s ecosystem, many states have laws against owning one. If you live in the following states, you cannot have a pet monk parakeet:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Georgia
Hawaii
Kentucky
Maine
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Wisconsin
Wyoming
The laws are always changing, so even if your state isn’t on this list, double check your local laws. Even the states that allow these birds as pets may have specific restrictions for owning them, so it’s good to know your state’s rules.
Risks of Monk Parakeets in North America
If you’ve seen a wild Quaker parrot before, you’re probably wondering what’s so bad about them being in North America. They’re adorable little birds, so on the surface, it seems fun to spot them in the wild. Yet, there are many downsides to having species that don’t belong enter a new area.
Invasive Species
Since monk parakeets aren’t from North America, they’re an invasive species, meaning they could harm the local ecosystem. They compete with local birds for food and nesting spots, which could harm local bird populations. Even if they’re not directly hurting other wild animals, having an animal that’s not supposed to be there can cause issues for the native ecosystem.
While these birds are usually friendly in captivity, they can be aggressive in the wild. They may become territorial over their nests, causing them to attack animals and humans they perceive as threats. This could cause them to hurt native North American birds that get too close to their nests.
Nesting Habits
Monk parakeets build massive nests that appear as a mound of sticks. One nest can include over 20 nest chambers. Dozens of birds can live in one nest structure. These nests fit in seamlessly with the grasslands and forests of South America, but when Quaker parrots roam free in big cities in North America, issues can arise.
In cities, these birds frequently build their nests on power lines and electric utility structures. Research indicates that these nest locations can damage equipment, lead to electrical fires, and cause power outages. The nests may be larger in northern states, such as New York, to protect these birds from the cold. Even if someone removes the nests, the birds will often rebuild them quickly in the same spots.
Wild Quaker parrots could also carry diseases that they could spread to humans and wildlife. Psittacosis and Newcastle disease are two serious diseases these birds could carry. Psittacosis can be fatal for humans while Newcastle disease is highly dangerous for birds, including livestock like chickens.
Are There Benefits to Monk Parakeets in North America?
When it comes to invasive species, people typically focus on the negative effects, but can there be positive ones? A 2021 study suggests that there may be some positive aspects to this species in North America.
They’re the only parrot species that builds massive nests out of sticks, and their unique nest structure can offer shelter for other bird species too. If other species live in these nests with monk parakeets, they work together to defend the nest instead of attacking each other.
If the birds living in these nests are native species, that could be beneficial. However, if more invasive species enter the nest, issues could arise. Thus, it depends on the situation, but in some cases, monk parakeets could be helping native birds instead of hurting them.
What Can We Do About Monk Parakeets in North America?
Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do to control these birds in North America. They can quickly rebuild nests, so removing nests isn’t beneficial. Many locations don’t allow you to remove birds from the wild either. It’s best to just leave them be and let environmental officials handle them if necessary.
The best thing we can do to prevent invasive populations from growing is to not own them as pets in states that don’t allow it. Anyone who has a pet monk parakeet in North America should take extra precautions to ensure there’s no way for the bird to escape their home.
Monk parakeets live in South America, but you may also see them in North America because of escaped pets. Always be cautious when owning an exotic pet like one of these green birds. Make sure the pets you own are legal and safely secured in your home.
“Are birds mammals?! Pfft, obviously they’re not mammals!”
I can almost hear the scoff of disbelief.
And, yes, you’d be correct. Birds are not mammals.
But wait.
Birds and mammals are more similar than they first appear.
Evolution is a curious beast. Throughout milenia, we have been graced with egg-laying mammals and flightless birds – both of which we wouldn’t expect of either group.
In this article, we’ll be exploring how birds are classified, as well as the similarities between birds and mammals that got us asking are birds mammals in the first place.
Classification Tells Us Birds Aren’t Mammals
So what makes a bird a bird and a mammal a mammal?
Why not just group all living things together?
Well, with an estimated 8.7 million living species (there could be more, there could be less – we’re still trying to get to an exact figure), putting everything together in one group can become a real mess for scientists.
Instead, we put species into groups that share similar features. Features that are more or less unique to that particular group.
Take birds, for example.
Most birds have feathers, produce hard-shelled eggs and have hollow bones. These traits are shared amongst all birds, and so they can be grouped together in one class.
Classification of Birds and Mammals
Birds and mammals both belong in Kingdom Animalia (fancy way of saying Animal Kingdom).
They also both belong in the phylum Chordata – a group they share with approximately 80,000 other species (representing just 3% of life on Earth!).
But that’s where the family tree stops.
From here, birds can then be separated into the class Aves.
Then, scientists classify birds (and any other animal) in further groups, based on traits and observable characteristics. These groups are:
Family
Genus
Species
The closer to species, which is the lowest taxonomic rank, the more closely related animals are.
What Are Birds?
If birds aren’t mammals, what are they?
The more you think about it, the more complicated the answer can become.
You can’t really define birds as exclusive flying animals. Afterall, an array of different animal groups can fly – from mammals to insects.
Besides, there are some birds, such as ostriches and penguins, that can’t fly. In fact, around 0.5% of the world’s bird species are flightless, which is about 60 species.
But, you can blame humans for that. Before we came into the picture, there were many more flightless bird species – I’m talking the likes of the dodo, the elephant bird and great auks. But we’ll save that for another article.
You also can’t refer to them as warm-blooded vertebrates as, again, that term can also be given to mammals.
They aren’t even the only animals to lay eggs.
However, there is one key characteristic that is unique to birds: feathers.
No other animal group, at least that we know of, has feathers.
Whilst different birds use their feathers for different reasons, the three main functions of feathers are:
Flight
Temperature control
Mate attraction
Other functions of feathers include waterproofing, camouflage and protection.
All birds have feathers – even the flightless birds. This is one of the most important differences which separates birds and mammals.
How Are Birds Similar to Mammals?
Right, this is where we get into the nitty gritty.
Over the years, scientists and naturalists alike pondered over the very existence of birds. Where did they come from? Are they mammals? What are their closest relatives?
And for many years, the scientists were stumped.
To us modern day scientists, it’s clear a bird is a bird and a mammal is a mammal. We know that now.
But, it was a long journey to get there. As it turns out, birds and mammals share many similar features. Here’s just a few:
The Cloaca
A cloaca is a multifunctional opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts of many vertebrate animals – including birds and mammals.
Whilst all birds have cloacas, only a few mammals have this rear orifice. These mammals, most notably monotremes, tenrecs, golden moles, and marsupial moles use the cloaca in much the same way a bird would.
These mammals, especially monotremes, are the oldest branch of the mammalian tree and still share similar characteristics to their earlier bird ancestors.
Egg Laying
If you thought egg-laying was unique for birds, think again.
Many animals – from fish to amphibians – lay eggs. As do some mammals. Sorry, birds, you’re not unique.
However, there is a difference in the texture of the eggs. Unlike avian eggs, which are hard, mammal eggs are soft and leathery, much like the eggs of reptiles.
Advanced Brain
No disrespect to other animal groups, but birds and mammals have some of the most advanced brains in the animal kingdom.
Up until recently, it was thought that just mammals possessed the power to yield tools to obtain food.
However, at least 33 different bird families have been observed using tools to access food.
Corvids – crows, ravens, magpies and the likes – are perhaps the most cited bird group for tool usage.
Their ingenious solutions range from fashioning hooks out of twigs to snag insects (as seen in New Caldonian crows), to using cars to help crush hard-shelled nuts (as seen in Japanese carrion crows).
However, tools aren’t exclusively used by corvids.
Striated Herons use bait – either in the form of breadcrumbs or vegetation – to lure fish into their strike zone.
Physiological Features
Both mammals and birds are endothermic vertebrates with four-chambered hearts.
That was a lot – let’s break it down.
Endothermic is a fancy way of saying warm-blooded animals. Both birds and mammals can regulate their body temperature internally, regardless of the external environment. Unlike reptiles, which need to bask in the sun to gain energy, birds and mammals can remain active in varying temperatures.
Vertebrate is a fancy way of saying a backbone. The backbone, or spinal column, supports their body and protects the spinal cord, allowing for greater mobility and complex movements.
Lastly, both birds and mammals have a four-chambered heart. This allows them to separate oxygen-rich blood from oxygen-poor blood, maximizing energy efficiency for energy demanding actions, such as flight or running.
So, there.
It’s easy to dismiss that birds are mammals.
But when you really get down to it, there are many similarities between the two animal groups.
If an alien came to our planet, would they be able to conclusively say birds and mammals differ? Or would they, like scientists in the past, question whether birds are mammals?
How Are Birds Different to Mammals?
Some birds eat the same food as mammals. Some move in the same way. Others even give birth in the same way. So, it’s looking likely that birds are mammals. Right?
But, as we’ve already discussed, there is a big difference: feathers.
But are there other differences?
Surprisingly, there aren’t as many differences as you might expect.
However, the other big difference that makes us certain that birds are not mammals is their reproductive and feeding strategies.
Cloacal Kiss
This rather romantic phrase refers to the copulation, or mating, practices of most birds.
Males mount the females back, and positions himself to align his cloaca with hers (that’s right, both sexes have the same cloaca). Once both cloacas are pressed together genetic material is exchanged and internal fertilization can occur.
The act itself takes mere seconds. Enough time to get the deed done.
Feeding Strategies
Birds do not have teeth.
Instead, they have specialized beaks that have evolved to a specific diet.
Some birds have pointed beaks, which they use to tear flesh. Others have long, thin beaks which they use to reach nectar in tubular flowers.
A Broad-billed Hummingbird. Image by Matthew Studebaker via Flickr and website.
And what about what happens to all this food once it’s been consumed?
Unlike mammals, herbivorous and omnivorous birds have a digestive system that features a crop and gizzard.
The crop acts as food storage, possibly to be used to feed to young, as well as the first step to the digestion process.
Some bird species, such as pigeons and doves, produce crop milk. This highly nutritional substance is produced by both males and females and is vital for chick development.
Mammals, however, have mammary glands which are used to produce milk in which offspring suckle. Only females can produce milk.
Did Evolution Get Confused?
Sure, birds and mammals did once share a common ancestor.
Although it laid eggs and had no teeth, the platypus produced milk and was covered in fur. They do not possess a crop nor did they have feathers. Further studies revealed the bones of a platypus were not the hollow, honeycomb structured bones of a bird.
The platypus really was a mammal.
Are Birds Mammals? Final Thoughts
So, what are your thoughts now?
Are birds mammals?
The similarities between the two groups are closer than we once thought.
But, despite sharing some anatomical features (such as cloacas in some mammals), and physiological features (such as both being endothermic vertebrates with four-chambered hearts), birds are not mammals.
Birds are more closely related to reptiles than they are mammals.
Buntings are beautiful, small birds found throughout North America. They include a variety of species, from the well-known Indigo Bunting to the breathtakingly stunning Painted Bunting to the rare and mysterious McKay’s Bunting.
In this guide, you’ll meet all the buntings of North America and learn about their range, habitat, and description. No matter where you live or travel in North America, you’ll know the bunting species of that area and how to identify them out in the field. But first, let’s explore what a bunting is.
Several birds in North America share the common name “bunting.” However, some of these species belong to different bird families, so many are genetically unrelated.
According to Audubon Magazine, “When early naturalists began classifying North American birds… they slapped the sparrow, finch, or bunting label willy-nilly on just about any species with a thickish bill that looked good for cracking seeds, since that’s what such birds were called back in the Old World.”
As such, when they standardized common bird names, some “buntings” kept the name while others dropped it for a more fitting classification. Nevertheless, they all seem to share a small, conical beak, with some variance in size and thickness.
North American buntings are found in four bird families: the Cardinal family (Cardinalidae), the Longspurs and Snow Buntings family (Calcariidae), the New World Sparrow family (Passerellidae), and the Old World Buntings family (Emberizidae).
The Old World Buntings are the first bird species classified as buntings. North America has two rare species from that family that sometimes wander into Alaska from northern Asia: the Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) and the Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica).
Otherwise, the most common North American species belong to the Cardinal family. This family has five bunting species easily recognized for their gorgeous, vibrant feathers. Besides the Cardinal family, there are the snow buntings and the Lark Bunting, which are genetically unrelated but share a common name.
Range: The Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) migrates in the spring to breed in Central and Eastern North America. They winter in Central America and the Caribbean Islands.
Habitat: These birds are common and widespread. They prefer roadsides, brushy forest edges, and brushy pastures and meadows. You’ll likely see the male perched atop a small shrub or tall grass, singing throughout the day.
Description: The male is unmistakable during breeding season with dark blue plumage from head to tail. The wings are black and blue. The female is less conspicuous, with dark brown feathers above and pale tan below, with sparrow-like wing streaks.
2. Painted Bunting
Image by Joseph F. Pescatore / @jfp_birds
Range: The brilliant Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) breeds throughout the summer on the Southeast Coast of the United States. They are also common summer residents in the south-central United States, including Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. They winter in southern Florida, Mexico, Central America, and the northern Caribbean Islands. .
Habitat: These beautiful birds can be found in brushy areas, forest edges, roadsides, shrubby undergrowth in open woods, and gardens with hedges and shrubs.
Description: The male is one of the most colorful birds in the United States. He has a bright red to orange belly, a dark blue head, and a green-yellow back. The female and immature male are yellow below and pale to dark green above.
Range: The Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena), breeds throughout the northwestern United States. In the spring and fall, it migrates through Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Habitat: Open brushy areas along streamsides next to meadows and grasslands, as well as scrub oak and chaparral ecosystems.
Description: The male is another bright and beautiful bird. He has a blue head and back, a white belly, and a rusty orange chest. The female resembles a sparrow with pale tan below and brown above.
Range: Breeds in southernmost parts of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. It breeds and winters throughout Mexico.
Habitat: The Varied Bunting (Passerina versicolor) prefers dense, thorny brush, streamside thickets, canyon streams, and desert brushland.
Description: The male can vary in color (hence the common name). Some are lavender blue-purple with soft pink-red hues on their belly, head, chest, and back. Other males are more blue, with bright crimson red on their belly and head. From a distance, the males can look black due to their preference for shady and thick shrubs. The females are less distinct–pale tan below and darker tan above.
Range: In winter, the Blue Bunting (Cyanocompsa parellina) is a rare visitor to the far south of Texas. Otherwise, it is a common resident throughout Mexico and northern Central America.
Habitat: Woodland edges, dense thickets, and the forest understory in tropical lowlands.
Description: The male is dark blue from head to tail, with black around its beak. It can appear like the Indigo Bunting but has a much thicker and stubbier bill. The female is warm brown, darker above and paler below.
Range: The Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) winters throughout the northern United States and southern Canada. In spring, it migrates to the far north of Canada to breed. It is a year-round resident of western Alaska.
Habitat: In summer, they breed in the northern Arctic tundra, in rocky outcrops, cliffs, and stony beaches. For their winter grounds, they prefer open fields, meadows, prairies, and lakeshores.
Description: While breeding, these beautiful birds have a bright white belly and head, a black back, and black and white wings. Their non-breeding plumage is more tan-brown with sparrow-like wing streaks. Non-breeding adults have a white belly, a tan neck collar, tan cheek marks, and a tan head stripe.
Range: The McKay’s Bunting (Plectrophenax hyperboreus) breeds on the remote St. Matthew and Hall Islands in the Bering Sea. They sometimes visit St. Lawrence Island during the summer and migrate to Alaska’s west coast in fall and winter.
Habitat: Open tundra, rocky outcrops, and stony beaches.
Description: This bird resembles the Snow Bunting but is whiter, with less black on the wings and no black on the head or back.
New World Sparrow Family Bunting
8. Lark Bunting
Image by JFP_Birds via Flickr and Instagram @jfp_birds.
Range: The Lark Bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) winters in the far southwestern United States and northern Mexico. In spring, it migrates north to breed in the Great Plains region.
Habitat: You can find this bird in open plains and prairies. You may spot the males fluttering up from the tall grass while singing throughout the summer.
Description: The breeding male is all black with white wing patches. Non-breeding adults and females have a white belly with tan streaks and sparrow-like streaked wings. They have a brown head with a subtle pale eye streak.
The Buntings of North America
Buntings include some of the most beautiful and colorful birds in the United States. When you spot a bright Indigo or Painted Bunting, you’ll be stunned by their incredible beauty and depth of color. Even the subtle Snow Bunting, with its pearly white feathers, is a lovely and lively bird to behold.
No matter where you are in North America–whether in the far south, the Great Plains region, or the Arctic tundra–there’s a bunting for you to find. If you’re brave and adventurous, you might even travel to the Baltic Sea to witness the rare McKay’s Bunting.
How many buntings on this list have you seen? Feel free to share how many you’ve seen and your experience with these stunning birds in the comments below!
We have other guides to birds in North America which you can check out here:
Throughout the globe, there are approximately 11,000 species of bird, across 30 orders. Every species of bird eats a certain diet. And every species is adapted to that very diet. So what are their diets – or more specifically – what do birds eat?
Sure, you may have seen birds come to your bird feeder. But birds are so much more than mere seed-eaters.
There are specialist snake hunters, capable of delivering kicks up to six times their own body weight.
There are fishing experts that can lift like-to-like their own body weight.
And, of course, there are birds that eat nothing but fruit.
The world of bird dieting is fascinating and we’re about to explore some of the most common diets, and the adaptations needed, for these birds to thrive.
An Introduction to Bird Diet
Biologist or not, most of us have heard the terms carnivore, herbivore and omnivore. For me, it was drilled into my head in my early school days.
A carnivore eats meat, a herbivore eats plants and an omnivore eats a bit of both.
It’s easy for our minds to go straight to the big cats as carnivores or cows and sheep as innocent herbivores.
But did you know, there are carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous birds?
Then things get a bit more complicated…
Categories of Bird Diet
As a group, birds have incredibly varied diets. Many species fall under the omnivorous category, eating a wide range of food.
However, there are some species with specialized diets.
So specialized, they have their own terms.
Below, we’ll discuss a variety of different diets most commonly observed in bird feeding behaviors.
Some species are incredibly strict with their diet and will not deviate away from a certain food source. These are known as obligate feeders. The hummingbird, for example, is an obligate nectivore. These birds will eat mainly nectar.
A Calliope Hummingbird. Image by Jerry Ting via Flickr.
Other species, whilst specializing on a certain type of food, are more adaptable. These are called facultative feeders. Toucans are facultative frugivores, supplementing their fruit-heavy diet with many other food sources.
The bird diet categories are:
Piscivorous
Insectivorous
Avivorous
Molluscivorous
Frugivorous
Granivorous
Nectivorous
Mucivorous
Ophiophagous
Kleptoparasitism
What Do Piscivorous Birds Eat?
Piscivores are birds that predominantly consume fish and other aquatic animals – both marine and freshwater.
Body Adaptations
Some piscivores have sharp talons that pierce the body of their prey. Specialized textured skin on the base of their feet, called ‘spicules’, prevent the fish from slipping away. An example of this is the osprey.
Other piscivores have webbed feet and paddle-like flippers. These adaptations help birds propel themselves through the water in pursuit of prey. Penguins use their powerful flippers when diving depths of up to 500m in search of fish.
Then, there are some oddities.
Whilst puffins have webbed feet, it is their unique jaw that sets them apart from other piscivores.
Puffins use their textured tongue to lock captured fish against their upper jaw, where a series of backwards-facing spikes holds them in place. Whilst diving, puffins can catch and hold, on average, 10 fish.
Incredibly, researchers have recorded upwards of 120 fish in the beak of a single puffin.
Some piscivores, such as terns and petrels, barely come into contact with the water when hunting for fish.
One particular example is the skimmer. This species, which can be found throughout tropical oceans, flies along the water surface with the lower mandible in the water, shutting as soon as the bill touches prey in the water.
What Do Insectivorous Birds Eat?
Birds that lead an insectivorous lifestyle typically hunt a range of arthropods – insects and spiders.
An insectivore diet is one of the most common bird feeding strategies, with an estimated 80% of all bird species relying on insects, at least temporarily, as part of their diet.
Insects, such as ants, grasshoppers, caterpillars, moths, and flies, are readily available and are an important protein source in nestlings.
Nearly all passerine bird species will feed their chicks a diet of insects, before becoming specialized feeders.
Body Adaptations
Insect feeders are diverse.
Some species, such as the woodpecker, have a long tongue covered in sticky saliva. Once a woodpecker has found a suitable drilling site, they’ll bore into trees with their chisel-like beak. Then, the long and sticky tongue is put to use extracting insects from within the bark.
Other species, such as the unique tawny frogmouth, have incredibly large beaks. They are capable of swallowing insects whole. To avoid damage caused by biting or stinging insects, frogmouths have stiff bristles around their beak.
However, most insect feeders have smallish, curved or pointed bills. The bee eater uses their bill like a pair of forceps, snatching flying insects on the wing. Larger insects that cannot be eaten whilst flying are taken to a perch to be dismembered. Delightful.
What Do Avivorous Birds Eat?
Specialized carnivores, avivores are birds that eat other birds.
Birds of prey, such as peregrine falcons and some hawks, actively hunt other bird species.
Body Adaptations
Like piscivores, avivores have physiology adapted to snatch fast-moving prey.
Avivorous raptors, such as the peregrine falcon, have adapted to live in urban environments, where they hunt other common city birds, such as pigeons. Often, they will use their strong, curved and sharp talons to capture and kill prey.
However, peregrines also use speed to their advantage. Being the fastest known animal, they stun avian prey by colliding with them at speeds of over 200 miles per hour – that’s three times faster than the fastest land animal; the cheetah.
What Do Molluscivorous Birds Eat?
A molluscivore, you guessed it, has a diet consisting of mostly molluscs.
Molluscs are invertebrates, categorized by their soft, unsegmented bodies. They can range from terrestrial species, such as snails and slugs, to marine species such as oysters, clams and periwinkles.
Many species have an outer, calcareous shell, which provides vital protection for their vulnerable bodies.
However, these shells are no match for molluscivores.
Body Adaptations
Molluscivores have a range of feeding techniques and adaptations that enable this.
Some, such as oystercatchers (which incidentally I’m watching a flock of as I write this), use their durable beak to hammer at the shell, revealing the adductor muscle of the bivalve. A quick snip of this and it’s an easy meal for the oystercatcher.
Other species, such as song thrushes, have gone one step further and use their intelligence to work out how to break open the shell by dropping it from great heights.
There is at least one known species of raptor that feeds exclusively on mollusks – the snail kite.
A unique foraging behavior in the raptor family, the snail kite hunts apple snails close to water sources in areas such as the Everglades in Florida. Then, using their uniquely curved bill, the snail kite is able to take the snail straight from the shell.
What Do Frugivorous Birds Eat?
Frugivores are specialized herbivores. They consume a fruit-heavy diet, including the seeds and pulp of a range of fruits.
Body Adaptations
Many frugivores have adapted a strong stomach – capable of withstanding compounds that would otherwise be toxic to us humans. This is the case for the gray catbird, which can tolerate the toxic urushiol oil found in poison ivy berries.
The bohemian waxwing has evolved to thrive on nitrogen-poor sugary fruits. The intake of high sugar and low protein requirements enables the waxwing to thrive on a fruit diet.
The beak shape of frugivorous birds is also advantageous to them. The toucan, for example, have large, thick curved beaks in which they use to pluck fruit from trees.
What Do Granivorous Birds Eat?
Granivores are birds whose diet consists primarily of feeding on seeds and grain.
Whilst many passerine birds are granivorous during adulthood, most will supplement their developing chicks with insects.
However, American goldfinches are one of the few obligate granivores. They even feed their young seeds – a unique behavior in birds, as seeds typically have less calories than insect protein for developing young
Body Adaptations
Seed and grain eaters are often characterized by their beaks – larger birds have thicker bills which they use to exert force enabling them to crack hard shell exteriors. Smaller birds, such as finches and sparrows, have smaller and thinner bills in which they use to pry seeds from pine cones and flowers.
The common crossbill, a member of the finch family, has an unusual beak – slightly curved and crossing over at the tip. But this beak is perfectly evolved to allow the crossbill to extract seeds of pine cones.
What Do Nectivorous Birds Eat?
Another easily deducible name, nectarivores consume a nectar-heavy diet.
Body Adaptations
The most recognisable nectivorous birds are the hummingbirds.
Found throughout the Americas – from Canada to Argentina – hummingbirds have evolved long and thin beaks to access tubular flowers.
The beaks of hummingbirds are so unique, some flowers have evolved to be pollinated by just one particular species of hummingbird.
In their home range, competition is fierce. In Ecuador, over 130 different hummingbird species can be found, so each hummingbird has to evolve some advantage over another.
And the Sword-billed Hummingbird has done just that. Their bill can measure up to 11 cm – the largest with respect to body length for any bird. Oh, and the sword-billed hummingbird happens to be one of those birds that one flower – the passiflora – depends on.
However, hummingbirds aren’t the only nectar feeders.
Native to Hawaii, the liwi is a species of honeycreeper. Like the hummingbird, they too have a long, proboscis-like beak in which they use to lap up the sweet nectar. Their beak is down-curved, which allows them to access the elongated flowers of Hawaiian lobelioids.
Now the Birds With More Unique Diets…
Ok, thus far the names are relatively self explanatory.
But not everything is that straightforward in biology. The next few diets are highly specialized – can you guess what they are without reading the description?
The diet of mucivores consists mainly of plant sap.
Body Adaptations
Sap suckers, a type of North American woodpecker, are specialists when it comes to, well, sap sucking.
To do this, they have a sharp and pointy, chisel-like bill that allows them to drill holes into trees. The newly formed tree wound seeps sap that the sup sucker laps up with their equally adapted brush-tipped tongue.
What Do Ophiophagous Birds Eat?
If we’re talking specialism, this one takes first place.
Ophiophagus birds specialize in hunting and feeding on snakes. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
Body Adaptations
Surprisingly, there are a few species of birds that are seasoned snake hunters.
Image by Jeremy Cohen via Flickr and Instagram @jcnature.
Also known as the crowned eagle, the chaco is a large snake-eating raptor native to South America.
Their diet consists of the highly venomous neotropical lanceheads. Members of this genus have venom so potent it can kill humans.
However, the chaco eagle has evolved morphological adaptations to help reduce risk of injury. Firstly, they have overlapping scales on their feet and toes, preventing snake fang penetration. Secondly, special proteins can be found in the blood of the chaco eagle, which is thought to help neutralize snake venom.
Another, perhaps more well-known, snake hunter is the secretary bird.
The dinosaur-like secretary bird is something to behold.
If you’re not dazzled by their eyelashes, you’ll be blown away by their hunting strategies.
Secretary birds have long legs and sharp claws in which they use to kick and stamp on the heads of venomous snakes. To avoid being bitten by deadly snakes, the secretary bird needs to strike quickly.
Incredibly, the secretary bird can deliver a powerful kick some 5 to 6 times their own bodyweight in a tenth of the time it takes to blink your eye. The forceful, yet incredibly accurate, blow requires high levels of cognitive coordination from the bird, enabling them to kill snakes efficiently.
What Do Kleptoparasitic Birds Eat?
Not a diet per se, but more of a lifestyle.
Those specializing in kleptoparasitism are typically generalist feeders, taking whatever they can, whenever they can.
Kleptoparasitism is a feeding strategy where an animal steals food from another animal.
Body Adaptations
Kleptoparasitism is most often seen in the bird kingdom.
It can either be stealthy or aggressive. For the latter, kleptoparasites chase down and harass another bird until it gives up its food.
One of the most infamous kleptoparasites is the group containing the frigatebirds.
Frigatebirds occupy and breed in warm temperate to tropical climates and typically target other tropical species, such as boobies (get your head out the gutter, this is a bird species).
Frigatebirds will chase down other species, grabbing their tail feathers and shaking them.
The sudden onslaught of arial harassment forces the victim to regurgitate their food midair. The frigatebird then swoops in to catch the falling meal – most often fish.
A Deep Dive into Convergent Evolution
Biology is confusing. Trust me, I know.
However, there are some logical explanations.
Take bird appearance, for example.
Why do many different unrelated birds look the same?
I’m talking about birds that aren’t even slightly related, found on the opposite sides of the world.
Toucans and hornbills. Ibises and curlews. The list goes on.
The answer – convergent evolution.
Convergent evolution occurs when unrelated species independently evolve similar features or behaviors in response to certain environmental pressures.
One of the biggest driving factors of convergent evolution is food.
Species evolve to adapt to a specific ecological niche. Some species evolve long bills to reach hard-to-access nectar whilst others evolve sharp talons to capture prey.
The key thing to remember about convergent evolution is the independent aspect.
Species from South America may evolve the same characteristics as species in India due to food availability.
It’s all very nifty stuff.
Final Thoughts
Birds eat a wide array of diets. They can be herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.
Or, they can take dieting a step further and become incredibly specialized in what they eat.
There’s the snake specialists, the nectar gatherers, the fish hunters. The list goes on.
Now the resemblance to dinosaurs seems uncanny, right?
So, next time you’re watching that American Goldfinch on the feeder, just keep an eye out for what they’re eating.
In general, all birds are fascinating, yet some blow us away more than others. Narrowing a list down to twenty cool birds is nearly impossible to do, but our team has done the impossible!
Let’s not waste any time! Here are, in our opinion, the twenty coolest birds in the world and why. We hope you have the pleasure of spotting some of them in the wild.
The Gurney’s Pitta of Southeast Asia ranks as one of the most beautiful birds in the world. It is also one of the most elusive and rare birds in the world.
The behavior of this ground-dwelling bird has been described as secretive and shy. Once considered extinct with no sightings in decades, we finally found it again in the 1980s in Thailand. The Gurney’s Pitta is highly sought after in the illegal bird trade due to its beauty. This placed the bird on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, along with habitat destruction and degradation.
19. Greater Bird of Paradise (This Cool Bird is the Most Beautiful)
The Greater Bird of Paradise is another bird found on many of the ‘most beautiful’ lists, likely due to its exuberantly long and vibrant tail feathers used in courtship displays.
It is the largest member in the genus Paradisaea. The male performs his courtship dance for hours in hopes of attracting a mate. Click here for a video of their dance- we promise you won’t be disappointed!
Blue Jays are often overlooked when talking about cool birds. However, they shouldn’t be!
For starters, Blue Jays, similar to Corvids, are highly intelligent and capable of mimicry. It memorizes the locations of vast food caches, up to hundreds of acorns a season. It acts as an alarm bird for other prey animals, signaling the arrival of the Red-Shouldered Hawk. And finally, its blue coloration is an illusion. It is not a pigment but rather comes from the internal structure of the bird’s feathers.
17. Lilac-breasted Roller (Cool For its Aerial Acrobatics)
The Lilac-breasted Roller is a cool bird found in eastern and southern Africa. Its most fascinating feature is its performance of aerial acrobatics in flight including rolling motions and shallow dives.
It is easily identified by its twelve feather colors. This bird is beautiful, but we value it for so much more than its looks.
The beloved Kakapo is definitely not the most beautiful bird in the world – but it is one of the coolest birds! For starters, its freaky looks beg a double take from observers. That is, those that spot this master of camouflage.
The Kakapo is clumsy and flightless, spending its days sleeping (nocturnal) and its nights stumbling upon the forest floor. What’s more – it only mates three times every ten years!
15. King of Saxony Bird of Paradise (a Bird with Amazing Plumes)
Spot the Saxony Bird of Paradise easily – find its two scalloped plumes often standing erect or dancing in rhythm with the bird’s melodic song. These grow up to twenty inches long each!
The King of Saxony is the only bird in its scientific family – a unique rarity. As with the Greater Bird of Paradise, the King of Saxony puts on quite the show during courtship. This consists of dances and vocalizations.
The Shoebill is allegedly the evilest bird in the world due to the prolific murdering of its siblings as chicks and its profuse hunting methods. However, it is fairly friendly with humans.
It has prehistoric features, such as its oversized beak and rare blue eyes. Its oversized beak is in fact the third largest in the world, which enables feeding on unthinkable prey. While the bird is not prehistoric, sightings are reported dating back as far as Ancient Egyptian times. Once thought a stork, it is now classified as a member of the Pelecaniformes order, placing it closer genetically to pelicans and herons. Its conservation status is vulnerable due to habitat destruction and hunting.
The White-Necked Raven is truly a cool bird to observe. It is the largest of the African Corvids. It has a notably sized brain to match with intelligence equal to that of a chimpanzee or dolphin.
White-Necked Ravens are masters of mimicry, meaning they can be taught to talk similarly to parrots. The White-Necked Raven, and Ravens in general, have playful behavior and love games. This species is also known symbolically as a symbol of wisdom or omen of change.
The Frigatebird lands its spot on the list of cool birds due to its drastically oversized, bright-red, inflatable gular pouch.
Another bewildering fact – it forces other birds to regurgitate food, allowing it to easily feast without a hunt by vigorously shaking the bird until exhaustion during flight. It gets its name from the Frigate Pirate Ships, being described as the ‘pirate of the sky’ thanks to its aggressive robberies. It also has the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird species in the world.
Don’t be fooled, the Flamingo, easily recognized by its vibrant color and slender legs, is often overlooked but worthy of a spot of this list. The Flamingo has many fascinating tricks, including filtering water in its beak, coloring its own feathers via dietary choices, and regulating its own temperature by standing on one leg.
Another interesting Flamingo fact – they eat with their heads upside down in the water! And finally, don’t overlook its courtship display, consisting of loud calls, eccentric head-waving, and, coordinated wing-flapping.
The California Condor is the favorite comeback story of the North American west. But this isn’t its most interesting feature. It isn’t that it is the largest flying bird in North America, either.
We think what makes this a cool bird is its brain structure, similar to that of an octopus. It is incredibly intelligent. Our favorite story is a California Condor that was captured and put in captivity. She escaped and rode a thermal over one-hundred miles back to the exact location she was captured.
This bird species is taller than the average human and weighs up to one-hundred and sixty-five pounds. It is the second heaviest bird in the world, after the ostrich. It is flightless but makes up for it with its ability to hop seven feet vertically. Uniquely, the male bird raises the chicks and is especially protective of them.
The Malleefowl is a ground-dwelling Australian bird similar in size to a chicken. What makes the Malleefowl a cool bird, similar to the Dwarf Kingfisher, is its egg-laying techniques.
The male builds a large mound of leaf litter over the eggs. As the litter composts, its temperature rises, acting as an incubator for the eggs. Once hatched, the birds must dig their way out! This is not an easy task and leads to an eighty percent mortality rate in the first ten days of life.
Lyrebirds are large, ground-dwelling songbirds in southeastern Australia. This species is known for its ornate tail resembling a lyre and giving the bird its name.
It is a master of mimicry, displays profound dances during courtship, and has a high cognitive ability. They are an emblem in Australia and their beloved tail won them a spot on the back of the one-hundred dollar note.
The Arctic Tern is one of the top cool birds of the world due to its epic migration – the longest in all the animal kingdom. This medium-sized bird breed originates in the Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. Yet, it sees two summers each year and enjoys more daylight than any other animal in the world.
The Arctic Tern lives a long-life of nearly thirty years. The bird is made for flight and returns to ground to breed.
5. Dancing Red-Capped Manakin (This Bird has the Coolest Moves!)
The name gives this one away. The Dancing Red-Capped Manakin is best known for its stylish moves on the dance floor. Large groups of males perform a frenzied dance, dazzling the female counterparts.
Its favorite move? The moonwalk, of course. There are varying types of Manakins, and each boasts its own style of dance.
4. Emperor Penguin (Coolest Bird in the Antarctic)
Any animal that can survive in the tundra of the Antarctic is cool in our opinion, making the Emperor Penguin one cool bird. It is the largest bird in the Antarctic with a unique incubation technique. The male places the egg on its feet, waddling around with it throughout the incubation period. The egg is kept warm by the bird’s tummy resting securely above it.
The Emperor Penguin is flightless and eats plenty of fish to keep a thick layer of fat as insulation from the bitter cold climate in which it lives. It is an excellent diver, able to swim 1,850 feet below surface and stay submerged for over twenty minutes. Its air-filled bones help ward off the dangers of the deep-water pressure.
The Peacock is another often-overlooked bird, yet a cool bird nonetheless. Its tail takes years to grow and is an exuberant mix of vibrant greens, blues, and browns at maturity.
The male Peacock shakes its tail during courtship creating a sound similar to a rain stick. Males also molt their feathers each year after mating season and regrow them in time for next year’s courtship. And, last but not least, contrary to popular belief, Peacocks can fly!
The Dwarf Kingfisher is not only a cool bird, it is one of the rarest birds in the world. It is a tiny bird, only slightly bigger than a hummingbird.
The most fascinating aspect of the Dwarf Kingfisher is its reproductive behaviors. In particular, the fact that it builds its nest in underground tunnels leading to inclined egg chambers. The Dwarf Kingfisher is endangered and faces many conservation complications.
The Rufous Potoo’s strangest feature is its uncanny ability to resemble a leaf when hiding from prey. It even rocks back and forth to appear to be moving in the wind. This is sure to make it a difficult bird to spot!
It is the smallest of the Potoos, weighing only fifty grams. It is the main character of many South American myths due to its ghoul-like night-time calls. And it has eyes to match this ghoulish behavior, huge and bulging from their small heads.
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