Where Are All the Dead Birds ?

[Joshua_me]

I'm sitting around with a few friends as I type this, and somehow this subject came up, so I thought I'd ask my JUB buddies.

Think about it: Any given neighborhood has tens of thousands of birds flying about, living in trees and such... Where do they all go when they die ?

Sure, you see a dead bird from time to time, but not very many. Why aren't the streets and fields littered with the bodies of our winged, singing friends ?

What happens to them all ?

Thoughts ?

 

[spooger]

C*A*T*S.......

 

[gsdx]

Dead birds make easy prey. They don't usually fly away.

 

[martin6]

They all go to Cocoa Beach. Apparently it's a real turn on for people in the area to make out on the beach at night among the eviscerated sea gulls and wingless ducks that are stuck on the shore head down. At least that's what I gathered when I walked along Cocoa Beach last week.

*where's the gagging smilie?*

 

[samn3s]

Yahoo Answers

What Happens To Dead Animals (as reported in 1923)

I am for the Birds Myself!

Check out My Little Birdies!

 

[theblackajah]

This is a little known scientific quirk actually. Thing is, birds spend most of their time in the air (obviously), but death doesn't happen for them like it does for terran creatures. It sort of happens suddenly, rather than a slow drawn-out process, and tends to happen while they're in flight.

When they die in flight, their lungs tend to take a strong inhalation and the bird bloats, which greatly reduces its density - sort of like when you fill a balloon - after which it just keeps on floating up and up into the sky. Appropriate that these winged creatures die UP, rather than down, no?

Eventually they reach the exosphere with low pressure, and the opposite happens - the corpse explodes due to a difference in pressure, and the pieces (very small) burn upon re-entry as it falls back to the ground.

That's why you don't see (rarely see, that is) bird corpses.

Edit: I learned this during my internship at the Avian Research Centre at the University of British Columbia last year from leading ornithologists who do research of avian life cycles.

 

[Spellbound]

As a kid I tripped over a dead turkey vulture when I was running around the woods in my backyard. It was huge.
It took nearly a year for it to decompose, and the bones were still there when my family moved out five years ago.

 

[chatolandia]

We get a lot of dead birds, but the dogs eat them

 

[justsimon]

Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?

 

[tmb1]

Think about it: Any given neighborhood has tens of thousands of birds flying about, living in trees and such... Where do they all go when they die ?

Tens of thousands? Really? Wouldn't we all be swimming in poop on the way to work than?

 

[Croynan]

This is a little known scientific quirk actually. Thing is, birds spend most of their time in the air (obviously), but death doesn't happen for them like it does for terran creatures. It sort of happens suddenly, rather than a slow drawn-out process, and tends to happen while they're in flight.

When they die in flight, their lungs tend to take a strong inhalation and the bird bloats, which greatly reduces its density - sort of like when you fill a balloon - after which it just keeps on floating up and up into the sky. Appropriate that these winged creatures die UP, rather than down, no?

Eventually they reach the exosphere with low pressure, and the opposite happens - the corpse explodes due to a difference in pressure, and the pieces (very small) burn upon re-entry as it falls back to the ground.

That's why you don't see (rarely see, that is) bird corpses.

Edit: I learned this during my internship at the Avian Research Centre at the University of British Columbia last year from leading ornithologists who do research of avian life cycles.

what a fascinating posting this is. thank you for sharing the information with all of us.

my response was going to be that that is a matter of privacy and space between them and their "maker" and that i do not feel i have any right to intrude in the matter.

eM.

 

[Kulindahr]

This is a little known scientific quirk actually. Thing is, birds spend most of their time in the air (obviously), but death doesn't happen for them like it does for terran creatures. It sort of happens suddenly, rather than a slow drawn-out process, and tends to happen while they're in flight.

When they die in flight, their lungs tend to take a strong inhalation and the bird bloats, which greatly reduces its density - sort of like when you fill a balloon - after which it just keeps on floating up and up into the sky. Appropriate that these winged creatures die UP, rather than down, no?

Eventually they reach the exosphere with low pressure, and the opposite happens - the corpse explodes due to a difference in pressure, and the pieces (very small) burn upon re-entry as it falls back to the ground.

That's why you don't see (rarely see, that is) bird corpses.

Edit: I learned this during my internship at the Avian Research Centre at the University of British Columbia last year from leading ornithologists who do research of avian life cycles.

 

[martin6]

Well I've sucked a few in my engine! Actually we hit about 15-20 coming out of Tennessee one day. It was a miserable emergency! So, there's a couple of numbers for you! haha

They always said a picture is worth a thousand words!!!!

Front of the airplane after the emergency landing. Those red marks are... impact spots. Several more went into the engines. We flew into a flock of birds.

Here is a leftover, tenderized birdie!

Am I evil for thinking this is the funniest thing I've seen all week??

 

[Yuki Sohma]

"Bird Strikes" are one of an aviator's worst nightmares..........As to where do dead birds go.........I too have wondered the very same thing...............

 

[Joshua_me]

This is a little known scientific quirk actually. Thing is, birds spend most of their time in the air (obviously), but death doesn't happen for them like it does for terran creatures. It sort of happens suddenly, rather than a slow drawn-out process, and tends to happen while they're in flight.

When they die in flight, their lungs tend to take a strong inhalation and the bird bloats, which greatly reduces its density - sort of like when you fill a balloon - after which it just keeps on floating up and up into the sky. Appropriate that these winged creatures die UP, rather than down, no?

Eventually they reach the exosphere with low pressure, and the opposite happens - the corpse explodes due to a difference in pressure, and the pieces (very small) burn upon re-entry as it falls back to the ground.

That's why you don't see (rarely see, that is) bird corpses.

Well, damn !

I've never even heard of this ! Birds die UP. Who knew ?