Category Plants & Animals

You know that all birds have feathers. Some feathers are quite beautiful. But what are feathers for? Feathers help most birds to fly, but they are important for other reasons, too.

In cold weather, a bird’s feathers make a warm winter coat. The bird fluffs up its feathers to keep its body warm. For some birds, waterproof feathers act like a raincoat. These birds can swim and dive without getting too wet and sinking.

The colours of feathers can be important, too. Bright colours help some birds attract mates. Other colours make birds blend in with their habitat so they are hard to see. Then hungry enemies won’t notice them.

All birds have wings. Wings are for flying, of course, and most birds can fly.

A bird’s wings are thin and very light. They are nothing but a few little bones and small muscles covered with thin skin and feathers.

Bird wings aren’t all the same, however. The kind of wings a bird has depends mainly on the bird’s way of life.

Inside an egg, a tiny baby bird is curled up in a ball. Its head is bigger than its body. Its eyes are closed. All the food it needs is inside the egg. The baby bird has grown so much that it fills up the egg. It is ready to hatch.

The baby bird begins to move inside the egg. The eggshell cracks, the crack grows bigger, and bits of the shell fall off. Soon there is a big hole. The baby bird wiggles through the hole. A new life has begun.

When some kinds of birds hatch, they are helpless. Their eyes are still closed and they have no feathers. They can’t stand on their tiny, weak legs. Birds such as robins and nuthatches are helpless for weeks after they hatch. They need their mothers to feed them and keep them warm. But other kinds of birds can see, walk, and hunt for food soon after they hatch, even though they cannot fly yet. Two days after hatching, a duckling can run, swim, and find food.

Picture Credit : Google

It’s springtime. A bird flies by with a piece of red string in its mouth. Soon it flies by again with a twig. What is it doing? The bird is getting ready to build its nest. The nest is where the mother bird will lay her eggs. After the chicks hatch, they will stay in the nest until they grow up.

Different kinds of birds build different kinds of nests. Many birds make nests in trees. Some of these are layers of twigs piled together. Others are like bowls made of mud and grass. Nests can also be holes in tree trunks, or hanging pouches or sacs made of woven twigs and grass.

Some water birds make nests that float on water. They make the nests out of weeds and sticks and fasten them to rushes.

Some birds don’t make nests at all. Some sea birds lay their eggs on a ledge on the side of a cliff. Other birds lay their eggs in holes in the ground. And some birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.

Picture Credit : Google

Not its wings. Some other animals have wings, too.

Not its bill. Some other animals have bills, too.

Not its eggs. Many other animals lay eggs.

Not the fact that it can fly. Some birds can’t fly.

Give up?

Feathers! All birds have feathers. In fact, birds are the only animals that have feathers.

So if it has feathers, it’s a bird!

Picture Credit : Google

The Largest Mammals

A humpback whale swims near the top of the water. From time to time, it comes up for fresh air, filling its lungs. Then the whale dives down again. A few minutes later, it surfaces once more, and whoosh! the whale blows used air through the blowhole on top of its head. It breathes in again and dives.

Whales live in the water and look like fish, but they are really mammals. They are warm-blooded and feed their babies with mother’s milk. They don’t have gills like fish – they have lungs. That’s why they must come to the surface for air.

Big whales eat big things, right? Well, not all whales do. The throats of many whales are too small to swallow anything bigger than an orange! And many whales have no teeth. Baleen whales, such as right whales, gray whales, and rorquals, strain food from the water through hundreds of thin plates in their mouths. These whales eat plankton, which is made up of tiny plants and animals.

Toothed whales include sperm whales, belugas, and narwhals; dolphins and porpoises; and killer whales. These whales are meat eaters. Favorite meals include squid, crabs, lobsters, sharks, cod, and skates.

Picture Credit : Google

Mammals in the Sea

Most kinds of mammals live on land. But seals, whales, and a few other mammals live in the sea. They can stay underwater for a long time, but these mammals breathe air through their lungs. They rise above the water to breathe.

Whales look so much like fish that many people think they are fish. But they are mammals. They have hair, they are warm-blooded, and their babies drink mother’s milk. Dolphins and porpoises are small whales.

Seals, sea lions, and walruses are mammals that spend much of their time in the water and some time on land. When they come onto land, they waddle about on their fins.

Another group of sea mammals includes dugongs and manatees, which are sometimes called sea cows. These animals look a bit like walruses without tusks. Instead of hind flippers, each of these animals has a wide, flattened tail.

Picture Credit : Google