Exploring Nature: Poop

Unlike other animals, birds don’t produce urine, instead they excrete nitrogenous wastes in the form or uric acid, which resembles white paste, or plaster. I refer to this substance as “poop.”

A study in England found that red cars are more likely to be pooped on by birds, followed by blue and black. Green was the least likely to be a target.

I’m not sure why birds poop on one color more than another; I have a white car and a beige car so I hope neither attracts birds ready to excrete.

I do know that birds have excellent vision, hence the term “eagle eye.”

As with many organs, the eyes of larger birds are generally larger than those of smaller ones. The smallest eyes are those of hummingbirds, the largest are those of the ostrich. In fact, the ostrich’s eye is more than twice the size of a human’s.

The largest eyes relative to body size occur in eagles, falcons and owls. In addition to hummingbirds, the kiwi, a small flightless bird found in New Zealand, also has very small eyes – but it compensates by having a very keen sense of smell.

Which bird has the greatest visual acuity? Probably the Australian wedgetailed eagle. And, as you might expect, it has enormous eyes, both in absolute terms and compared with most other birds.

Birds can see even more colors than humans, and as shown by the English poop study, they are perfectly capable of treating colors differently – it seems obvious red is a real poop magnet.

But you folks with green cars can relax a little – unless no other car is available.