Do Geese’ Quacks Echo? And Different Chook Myths [Updated]

I obtain every kind of questions from all over the world, and I’ve been contacted by newspapers, magazines, radio and TV reveals, Hollywood producers, authors, artists, scientists, architects, and even a fighter pilot in Iraq, asking about some side of birds. Largely they’re easy questions on identification, hen homes, feeding, habits, ailments, and so forth., however sometimes the questioner alludes to some outdated wives’ story reminiscent of that of touching a hen’s nest or eggs or younger, inflicting the dad and mom to desert the nest and even kill the younger, or the parable about hummingbirds migrating by hitching rides on the backs of geese.

There are many folkloric tales about owls or ravens being dangerous omens, storks delivering infants, and blackbirds nesting in your roof to convey good luck. Legend has it that the robin acquired its purple breast from attempting to take away the bloody thorns from Christ’s head on the Crucifixion. Then there may be the story of younger eaglets who, attempting their first flight unsuccessfully, are caught on the again of one in every of their dad and mom and ferried again to the nest. This delusion apparently comes from a narrative within the bible (Deuteronomy 32:10,11).

One yarn I’ve heard loads these days is that eagles shed their talons and beak and feathers at about thirty to forty years of age, renewing their life in a 150-day course of, after which residing to the ripe outdated age of 70 or 100. This apparently is simply an e-rumor generated by somebody and unfold by way of our on-line world. We’re additionally warned to not throw rice at weddings as a result of if birds eat it, they’ll explode. If this had been true, the rice fields can be filled with burst birds. We’re additionally advised to not feed white bread to birds as a result of it’s dangerous for them; it could not be weight-reduction plan however feeding them white bread on the native park is simply a small portion of their weight-reduction plan and positively received’t damage them. Nonetheless, feeding them cracked corn might be a greater thought. We hear that some birds mate for all times. We’re advised that some bigger birds, like geese and eagles, mate for all times. No. Their mating habits is as erratic as ours. How concerning the one about purple dye in hummingbird feeders inflicting most cancers? Not true both. 

However some of the attention-grabbing fables I’ve heard is that the one sound that doesn’t echo is a duck’s quack. Why folks consider such nonsense is past me, however this story pops up commonly. First, what duck? There are dozens of species of geese and only some, such because the Mallard, make a sound that may realistically be described as a quack. Second, what acoustic properties would make a sound impervious to an echo? There isn’t a conceivable motive why any duck ought to or may create an unechoable sound. Though scientists normally don’t trouble attempting to refute nonsense like this (we depart it to “Fable Busters”), there was a examine in England that did simply that. As Choose Judy says “if it doesn’t make sense, it isn’t true.”