• There are 109 species of birds that have become extinct.

• Ninety percent of all species that have become extinct have been birds.

• The maximum speed of a chicken is 9 miles per hour.

• Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age.

• The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.

• It takes forty minutes to hard-boil an ostrich egg.

• Feathers make up 10% of a bird's total body weight.

• Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.

• A group of chickens is called a peep.

• If an average man had a metabolism comparable to that of a hummingbird he would have
  to eat 285 pounds of hamburger every day to maintain his weight.

• A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.

• Chickens have 250-350 taste buds compared to humans having 9000.
•  By feeding hens certain dyes, they can be made to lay eggs with various colored yolks.

• Owls turn their heads in almost a circle because they cannot move their eyes. Their
  eyeballs are not round like ours. They are tubular.

• Parrots can eat virtually any common food except chocolate, avocados and fried food.
  These are highly toxic and can be fatal.

• Some species of rain forest birds migrate every summer from South America to Canada to breed.

• The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.

• Female blackbirds are not black at all. They are a gray- brown gray.

• The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.

• The pouch of a pelican has a capacity to carry 12 quarts.

• An ostrich's eye is twice as large as its brain and weighs 3.3 pounds.

• Hummingbirds lay only 2 eggs during their entire lifetime.

• The largest woodpecker is the Mexican Imperial Woodpecker and it has a 23" bill.

• The female cuckoo bird destroys eggs in other bird's nests and replaces them with her own. The eggs are instinctively cared for by the mother of the destroyed eggs.

New York City has the largest population of peregrine falcons in the world.

• An albatross is able to sleep and fly at the same time.

• The bones of most birds are hollow and filled with air.

• Female bird's choose their mate based on how attractive they are and how beautiful they sing.

• Chickens roost early in the evening because they have very poor night vision.

• Ducks on the outer edge of the group sleep with one eye open. Those in the
  center of the group feel protected and close both eyes.

• Birds actually dream when they sleep. According to research conducted by the University of Chicago, they dream about their songs, have dream rehearsals, and sing the same songs better the next day.

• The average life span of a robin is 12 years.

• Ducks will only lay eggs in the morning.

• The nest of a bald eagle can be 12 feet deep,10 feet wide and weigh over a ton.

• An adult turkey has about 3500 feathers.

• Although domestic turkeys can not fly, wild ones can fly up to 55 miles an hour but only for short distances.

• One third of all bird owners turn on a radio for their pet when they leave the house.
• In 1998, USA hens produced 6,657,000,000 dozen eggs. That's 6.657 billion dozen.

• The average chicken lays approximately 260 eggs per year.

• With few exceptions, birds do not sing when they are on the ground. They only sing when standing on objects off of the ground or while flying.

• Penguins can swim but they cannot fly.

• Harpy eagles, from South America, eat monkeys. They lay their eggs in the twig platforms that they build in the treetops.

• A kiwi bird has nostrils at the end of its beak.

• A flamingo must turn its head upside down to eat.

• A hummingbird's egg is the smallest of all bird eggs and is the size of a pea.

• An ostrich egg is the largest of all bird eggs and is the size of a medium cantaloupe.

• All of the swans in England are the property of the queen. Disturbing or bothering
  them is considered a serious offense.

• Frigate birds can fly at a speed of 260 miles per hour.

• The American crow is found in every USA state except Hawaii.
• Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  The Christian bible says that the chicken came first. God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven". Genesis 1:19-20. Chickens are a type of fowl. So according to the bible,the chicken came first.
• National Geographic: Scientists have an answer for the age old dispute over which came first,the chicken or the egg. They say that reptiles were laying eggs thousands of years before chickens appeared. The first chicken came from an egg laid by a bird that was not quite a chicken. According to scientists,the egg came first.