birds

There's been a lot of animals I've talked about.  Now I'm talking about birds.  As you probably know, birds have feathers, but there are other special things about them like how they have two types of feathers.  They're called contour and down feathers.  Contour feathers are what make birds look smooth, sleek and colorful.  Down feathers give a layer of protection from a bird's skin and  keep birds warm.

Birds are also warm blooded or endothermic and their body temperature stays the same.  Each one of a birds' feathers is connected by hooks, so if one of their feathers get ruffled, they connect it back with the others.  Birds also constantly breathe through their air sacs to make them lighter and fly easier.

They also don't have any teeth, so they use their beak to tear the prey apart.  Some birds might not have beaks, so instead they have bills.   Water birds have these.  Bird's bones are hollow because if they weren't, they would be too heavy to fly.

They also have curved wings so air can lift them up from below. Also Georgia's, official state bird is the Brown Thrasher.

My favorite bird is the Peregrine Falcon. They can fly up to 202 mph and are also raptors.  That means they hunt other animals.

They eat mammals, reptiles and insects by diving through the sky and catching them by surprise.  They used to be endangered because of DDT, but they're not endangered any more.  DDT contaminated all of their food and put chemicals in lakes and plants.

They can live anywhere except polar regions, high mountains and tropical rain forests. It's also the fastest flying animal in the world. They live on scrapes or cliffs.

Bye that's my blog