Category: Birds
Also commonly known as the Quaker Parakeet, these small parrots originated in South America but exist in self-sustaining feral population throughout the world, most likely a result of released or escaped pets. They are considered agricultural pests in many places and the possession and selling of these birds is highly regulated. Nonetheless, they are extremely intelligent, engaging pets that are able to develop large vocabularies of words and phrases.
Asleep at the wheel?
Can you imagine spending nearly all of your life in the air? The common swift doesn’t have to - it just does! From the day this bird learns to fly, it almost never touches the ground voluntarily - it eats, drinks, mates, and may even sleep while flying. While sleep walking can be problematic in humans, many birds have the ability to enter a state called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, where one half of the brain sleeps as the other remains alert. This method of “sleeping with one eye open,” is a great way to avoid becoming another animal’s meal, and has led to the suspicion that these birds, who almost never willingly land, also sleep while in flight!
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Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
