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In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (1892), a valuable gem is hidden inside a bird's crop. [ 12 ] "Craw" is an obsolete term for "crop", [ 13 ] and this is still seen in the saying "it sticks in my craw" meaning "I can't [metaphorically] swallow it", that is, that a situation or other entity is unacceptable, or at ...
The behavior of an amphibian hatchling, commonly referred to as a tadpole, is controlled by a few thousand neurons. [4] 99% of a Xenopus hatchling's first day after hatching is spent hanging from a thread of mucus secreted from near its mouth will eventually form; if it becomes detached from this thread, it will swim back and become reattached, usually within ten seconds. [4]
The turacos make up the bird family Musophagidae (/ ˌ m j uː z oʊ ˈ f æ dʒ ɪ d iː / "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as loeries. They are semi-zygodactylous: the fourth (outer) toe can be switched back and forth. The second and third ...
Scientists can use fecal sacs to learn a number of things about individual birds. Examination of the contents of the sac can reveal details of the nestling's diet, [14] [15] and can indicate what contaminants the young bird has been exposed to. [16] The presence of an adult bird carrying a fecal sac is used in bird censuses as an indication of ...
A new bird flu strain was detected on a California duck farm. But what's the difference between H5N9 and H5N1, and is it safe to eat poultry? A doctor explains.
Bird food can vary depending upon dietary habits and beak shapes. Dietary habits refer to whether birds are naturally omnivores, carnivores, herbivores, insectivores or nectarivores. The shape of the beak, which correlates with dietary habits, is important in determining how a bird can crack the seed coat and obtain the meat of the seed. [2]
African honeyguide birds are known to lay their eggs in underground nests of other bee-eating bird species. The honeyguide chicks kill the hatchlings of the host using their needle-sharp beaks just after hatching, much as cuckoo hatchlings do. The honeyguide mother ensures her chick hatches first by internally incubating the egg for an extra ...
The birds are best known for building massive nest mounds of decaying vegetation, which the male attends, adding or removing litter to regulate the internal heat while the eggs develop. However, some bury their eggs in other ways; there are burrow-nesters which use geothermal heat, and others which simply rely on the heat of the sun warming the ...