Can birds get fat?

[Miss Chicken]

By birds I mean the feathered variey.

I was laying awake last night when this question popped into my head for some unexplained reason. I have seen large birds but never a fat bird. I was tempted to get up and research this on the internet.

Does anyone know the answer?

What do you do if questions pop into your head at night?

 

[What's his face]

I was lying down the other day when a different question popped into my head:

Why is it that people from Asia have those characteristic eyes, but animals from Asia do not?

 

[Venardhi]

Yes. Ever seen those huge geese they force-feed to plump up their delicious internal organs?

 

[cultcross]

The basic answer is yes they can, they store fat in much the same ways that we do - however, weight is on obvious disadvantage to a bird more than an animal, so they tend not to.

 

[Venardhi]

I was lying down the other day when a different question popped into my head:

Why is it that people from Asia have those characteristic eyes, but animals from Asia do not?

Because they are no closer related to them than any other group of humanity? That one is kind of a no-brainer.

 

[Trekker4747]

If a question pops in my head at night I usually hop on the internet.

In short, birds *can* get fat which can be a problem for domesticated birds but birds in the wild aren't likely to get fat as their diet doesn't very much allow for it.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Seems a silly question to me. I can walk into the town take a look at a group of pigeons and i'm guaranteed to see several thin ones and some so fat they can barely walk anymore, same goes for seagulls when I go to the coast.

 

[Miss Chicken]

They can't really be fat if they can still fly. I always thougjht that 'fat' seagulls were simply younger birds who hadn't lost their 'baby fat'.

Can't say I have ever seen a fat pigeon that could barely walk.

 

[What's his face]

Penguins are pretty fat, if I may say so.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Penguins may look fat but they aren't overweight.

 

[cultcross]

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e239/supersof/?action=view&current=very_fat_pigeon.jpg

 

[Miss Chicken]

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e239/supersof/?action=view&current=very_fat_pigeon.jpg

Oh, dear. He is fat. I wonder if he can fly?

 

[Small White Car]

Birds tend to get a lot of excursive. (Flying burns those calories, you know.)

That's the main reason they stay pretty fit.

 

[cultcross]

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e239/supersof/?action=view&current=very_fat_pigeon.jpg

Oh, dear. He is fat. I wonder if he can fly?

Kinda looks like he's bullying the other bird.
"Is that my peanut?"

 

[Flibble]

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e239/supersof/?action=view&current=very_fat_pigeon.jpg

That's a Wood Pigeon, and it would look fat against a tiny Blue Tit.
Wood Pigeons are the ones that are eaten, not the scrawny ones that you find in the middle of large cities.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Because they are no closer related to them than any other group of humanity? That one is kind of a no-brainer.

Are you saying Asians are really from another planet?!



(Don't know why this is cracking me up, but it is. )

 

[Ruaidhri]

Maybe you never see the fat ones because they get preyed upon faster, so they have a shorter life expectancy.

 

[Kira's Mom]

Birds tend to get a lot of excursive. (Flying burns those calories, you know.)

That's the main reason they stay pretty fit.

Plus, if they get to a point where they can't find enough food, they just drop out of the sky, dead. I've seen it happen, so that's why I leave a lot of birdseed out for them. The phrase "eat like a bird" is just silly, because birds have to eat almost as much as they weigh just to be able to fly!

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Was in park in London the other day and I don't think you're s'pose to feed the pigeons but we dropped some crumbs and a lovely little bird came to feed. Just behind it was a larger bird and I commented 'we shouldn't have dropped food, it will only encourage them and we'll end up with a flock 'as in The Birds'. Bf replied 'I don't think it's the food he's after' so we ended up witnessing a little 'live' bird on bird action *trying still to remove image* lol

 

[Venardhi]

Because they are no closer related to them than any other group of humanity? That one is kind of a no-brainer.

Are you saying Asians are really from another planet?!



(Don't know why this is cracking me up, but it is. )

You're reading that backwards. My point was that Asian animals are no closer related to Asian people than any other peoples and thus wouldn't have any evolutionary reason to share traits with them more than Africans or Europeans.