Interesting Facts

Ian Fleming named the character James Bond after American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies. (Fleming was a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". I guess James Bond the spy was a bit of a bird watcher too.)

Penguins can be gay. (Two Gentoo penguins, Inca and Rayas, at a zoo in Madrid, Spain, have been building a nest together every six years in the hope of starting a family. They have now been given their own egg to look after. Inca and Rayas aren't the first gay penguins to hit the news, and homosexual behaviour in penguins was first recorded in 1910, by polar explorer, Dr. George Murray Levick, but his account wasn't published as it was deemed "too shocking". Funnily the zoo keeper who looks after them said that although the pair were extremely close, they were not actually gay, but simply "the best of friends".  I call that being in denial.) Source

More than than 1,000 blackbirds died and fell from the sky over a small USA town on New Year's Eve. (Apparently, the birds fell across a 1-mile area of Beebe, Arkansas.  According to an aerial survey, no other dead birds were found except those in that particular area.  The birds showed some signs of physical trauma, and officials say that a flock could have been hit by lightning, high-altitude hail, or even been startled by fireworks resulting in death from stress.  Whatever the real reason I am sure the conspiracy theorists and Armageddon watchers will be having a field day.)

The bird, the common swift (apus apus) has been recorded flying at a speed of 69.3mph (111.6km/h). (This wasn't just swooping and stooping, seemingly it flies at this speed horizontally and upwards. The record speeds were measured during bouts of mating, which are called "screaming parties". Hmm I've been to a few of those.)

Scientists have found that rooks are able to figure out how to raise the water level in a laboratory container by dropping stones inside to retrieve a tasty worm floating on the surface. (Not such bird brains after all. I guess it's all about the incentive.) Source: Current Biology

Male hummingbirds can swoop faster than fighter jets. (They reach speeds of almost 400 body lengths per second. And why do they do it? To impress the ladies of course.)

The Scottish crossbill is the only bird unique to the UK. (That and the Nottingham totty.)

Cats can catch bird flu. (Poor Spooky has to be kept in now. As do all cats in Germany.)

The intensity of a bird's song is related to its testosterone levels - it's the fittest birds that sing the loudest. (That explains football chants.)

The Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people in 1918-19 was probably a strain that originated in birds. (I became worried about this when my doctor asked me if I would like a flu jab for the first time. Then I realised it's probably because of my age - sigh.)