CONTENTS Your bird from beak to tail Best birds for beginners Find your perfect pet Getting prepared Welcome home Bird behavior Feeding your feathered friend Caring for your pet Health and safety Understanding your bird Taming and training Fun and games Bird quiz Quiz answers Learning more Glossary and Index 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 31 32
youR bIrd from beak to taIl Scientists believe birds evolved from small meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods Recently found fossils show that some of these creatures from the Cretaceous period had feathers So by getting a bird pal you’re bringing a descendant of a dinosaur into your home Ears Birds have funnel-shaped ears covered with soft feathers Eyes Sight is a bird’s most important sense Birds with eyes on the sides of their head can also see behind them 4 Wings As a bird's wings move down the flight feathers overlap push against the air and lift the bird As the wings move up the feathers spread out letting air pass through Cere The fleshy area above the beak is where the bird’s nostrils are located similar to a human nose Beak Birds don’t have teeth They pick up food with their beak and then grind it up in a special part of their stomach called a gizzard see page 17
Bones Birds have hollow bones If they had solid bones they would be too heavy to fly Brain Although birds have small brains studies suggest they are clever In some tests a parrot did better than a three-year-old child Feathers Birds are the only animals with feathers They are used for warmth flight and display Some are brightly colored or have a special shape Feet Perching birds have four toes three facing forward and one facing back Tail Tail feathers are lighter and stiffer than body feathers Birds use their tails to take off land and steer during flight Some fan their tails for display bIrd facts Birds have ultraviolet UV vision and many birds have markings that reflect UV light which humans cannot see For example male and female birds called blue tits look the same to humans but birds can tell them apart because the feathers on a male blue tit's head reflect UV light There are more than 9,000 species of birds found throughout the world from the frozen shores of Antarctica to tropical rain forests 5
