Birds are among the most studied animals in the world, but biologists haven’t long studied one of birds’ favorite foods. It’s true that many birds actually like to eat sticky things, and this can have a profound and unnoticed impact on their health. In fact, their passion for feces may be an important reason why birds have survived across continents and for millions of years.

Eating feces is a well-documented behavior in insects, mammals, and some domestic birds such as parrots, but research on wild birds is still in its infancy.

In a newly published paper, a research team led by environmental microbiologist Alice Dunbar from the University of South Australia summarized what we currently know about “this poorly understood behaviour” and what benefits it could provide.

Over the past two decades, scientists around the world have caught ostrich, chicken, duck, osprey, bird, vulture, magpie and bird in the poop bucket, so to speak, with their fingers. . Some of these birds feed on the droppings of their own species, while others prefer the taste of more exotic droppings, such as those of dogs, whales, river otters, cougars, cowbirds, seals, and other birds. Poop is everywhere, and birds probably use it the most.

Researchers suggest that ingesting the feces may help restore the balance of beneficial bacteria in the bird’s gut, similar to how fecal transplantation works in humans.

For example, ostrich feed their young with their own feces, and a 2023 study found that the young’s gut microbiome matures faster when they have access to fresh feces. And poop isn’t just a delicacy for teenagers. In recent years, adult warblers, robins, drones, mockingbirds, Florida jays and American crows have been observed digging up the feces of their own young. When the parent bird distributes food to its babies, they get a delicious snack in return for all their hard work.

Their cubs spin around like a Pez dispenser and pull out a “fare bag” from their anus; Parents then catch and swallow it as easily as taking candy from a child. The pouch looks like a small dumpling and actually serves as a diaper for the chicks that haven’t yet made it out of the nest. taste.

Great behaviors are extremely understudied. Scientists believe this may help keep the nest clean or be a way to preserve nutrients and microbes that the adult bird may have lost due to the hard work of its parents.

A 2020 giant baboon study found lots of bacteria in the fecal sacs of cubs FirmicutesIt is an important feature of the intestines of many bird species.

In addition to maintaining gut health, manure consumption can also help birds adapt to existing nutritional deficiencies. For example, white-winged crucians are believed to feed on river otter feces because it contains undigested calcium bones. Giant petrels are thought to eat seal dung because it is a high energy source that is easily obtained after prolonged starvation and keeps the eggs warm in the nest.

But these are all just ideas. We will only know for sure why birds eat poop if scientists start studying this issue.

“Detailed studies are urgently needed to determine potential benefits.” [споживання фекалій] researchers in the context of different life stages with different resource needs and resource availability.