Billy Spears, age 13, of Garber, Okla., for his question:
HOW MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF BIRDS ARE THERE?
Musicians, poets and artists have been inspired by the graceful flights of birds, their beautiful colors and their fine songs. And for hundreds of years they inspired inventors to try to duplicate the bird's flight in gliders and airplanes. Birds live in all parts of the world. For millions of years they have fascinated man.
A bird is an animal with feathers. Birds live in the hot and cold areas of the world as well as the wet and dry. All birds have wings but not all of them can fly.
There are about 9,000 different kinds of birds living today.
You'll find more land birds than water birds although thousands of species spend all their time either on or near the water.
Did you know that some birds actually build their nests on the water on floating pieces of marsh plants? It's true. Also, some ocean birds spend months at sea and have such great endurance they can stay in the air for many days without rest.
More kinds of birds live in the tropical areas of the world than anywhere else on earth. Colorful parrots can be found in the tropics of Australia, Asia, Africa and South America while bright trogons live in tropical parts of South America, Asia and Africa.
Birds can be classified by what they eat. You can't correctly say of a person with a small appetite that he "eats like a bird,'' because some birds eat a great deal.
The average person eats about three pounds of food each day. A pigeon, on the other hand, eats about one twentieth of his body weight each day which means that a man would have to eat nine pounds of food each day to achieve the same rate.
Some baby birds in one day can eat nearly their own weight in food.
Some birds are seed and fruit eaters. Small birds with strong bills are especially attracted to seeds. Others, like hummingbirds, live mostly on nectar they find in flowers.
Insect eating birds also form a large group while other kinds catch fish with long, spearlike bills.
Birds of prey kill and eat other birds and small animals such as mice, rats and snakes
Since ancient times, man has elected to include birds as household pets. Canaries are bred for their songs and bright colors. Parrots and parakeets are often tame enough to perform tricks on demand. It is difficult to raise wild birds in captivity and few can be trained.