What's a bird?
Do you know what makes a bird different from other animals?
Is it the pretty colors?
No -- other animals, like fish and insects, come in all sorts of beautiful colors too.
Is it the bill or beak?
No -- other animals, like the duck billed platypus (a mammal), have bills too.
Is it the eggs?
No -- other animals, like fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects and even some mammals, hatch from eggs as well.
Is it the wings?
No -- other animals, like insects and some mammals, have wings.
Feathers!
All birds have feathers and birds are the only animals that do!
Feathers do many jobs for birds. Soft down keeps them warm, wing feathers allow flight and tail feathers are used for steering.
The color of the feathers can be used to hide the bird or to help the bird find a boyfriend or a girlfriend!
Scientific information: Birds are a scientific "class". The scientific name for the class is Aves.
The Raptors
Birds of prey or "raptors" are meat eating birds that use their strong feet, talons and hooked beaks to catch and kill their prey. This group includes eagles, osprey, hawks, owls (Great Horned Owl), kites, harriers, buzzards, merlins, vultures, goshawks and condors. They eat small mammals such as mice and rabbits, fish, snakes, and even other birds. Some catch and kill their food and others (like vultures) feast on the leftovers other hunters leave behind.
Birds don't have teeth... can you guess why? Teeth are heavy and would make it very difficult for birds to fly. This is especially important for birds of prey who must fly swiftly to catch their food. Birds "chew" their food inside a part of the stomach called the gizzard. The gizzard has strong muscles which grind the food against a rough inner surface to break it down.
Raptor eyes are so big that they cannot move them. The bird has to turn its entire head to look around (that's where the idea that owls can spin their heads around comes from... they can't really, but they can turn their heads a LOT farther than we can!)
The eyes of a raptor are so important for their survival, that they have three eyelids. The third one is partially see-through (partly "transparent") which allows the birds of prey to protect their eyes when attacking prey and still have some sight.
Birds of prey have eyesight that is at least two or three times better than ours. Some can see a grasshopper from the other side of a football field! Golden eagles can spot a rabbit from over a mile away and owls have great night vision so they can hunt in the dark.
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