Bird Information

Birds, warm-blooded animals, easily distinguished from other vertebrates by their shape, by the feathers that cover their bodies and by their wings. Birds usually live in pairs, rearing their young in homes which they make themselves, though there are some remarkable exceptions to this rule. All birds lay eggs from which young are hatched. In the higher orders the young are naked when they break from the shell and must be cared for and fed by the parents, but in some of the lower species the little ones are covered with tiny hairs and in others covered with a complete suit of feathers before they hatch. In the latter case the young are able to take partial care of themselves very soon after they appear. The eggs vary in number from two to several dozen, seeming to be proportioned to the dangers the young are to meet, but being practically the same number at every sitting of each species. The eggs which are hatched by heat are sometimes buried in rotting vegetation, or in the sand under the hot sun, but more frequently they are laid in artificial nests or in some natural receptacle, and are there brooded and kept warm by the body of the female until the chick matures and emerges. This is usually a period of from two to three weeks.