Birds are vertebrates. They have a backbone and a skeleton, but their bones are very light to help them fly better.

Birds are the only animals that have feathers.

Birds make nests, and then lay eggs in them. Their eggs have a hard outer shell to protect them.

Birds have to sit on their eggs to keep them warm until they hatch. This is called incubation.

Some birds have feathers when they first hatch. These feathers are very fine and are called down. Other birds do not have feathers when they first hatch.

There are nearly 9,000 types of birds.

One type of bird, a cockatoo, can live up to 80 years!

Hummingbirds are some of the smallest birds. Their wings beat so fast that you can't even see them moving.

Some birds migrate. That means they live in one place during the summer and in another place during the winter. They move from one place to another to help them stay warm.

Birds spend a lot of their time feeding their young. They have to find food and bring it back to the nest for the babies to eat.

Crows are a smart type of bird. In some places, they will place walnuts or other nuts on a road. They wait for a car to drive over the nut and crack it open. Then they pick up the nut out of the shell and eat it.

Other birds like eagles will pick up tortoises and fly up high with them. They will then drop them onto rocks so that the tortoises' shells break. Then the eagles can eat the tortoise meat inside.

Some birds make tools out of twigs and straw and other materials. They use these tools to help them get food. For example, a crow might use a twig to help get insects out of a log.

Some birds can talk. They learn different words by hearing people say them over and over. One special parrot learned how to say over one hundred different words.

Birds love to sing. Different birds make different types of noises. Some sound like people. Others just chirp. Some sing different songs. Birds have a special organ called a syrinx, which helps them produce sound. They use these sounds to communicate with each other.

The brown thrasher is Georgia's state bird. It can sing over 2,000 songs!

Birds use their sense of smell and their eyesight to help them hunt.

Penguins live in extremely cold weather. They dive under the water to find their food. They can dive over 1,300 feet deep.

Birds that eat seeds must have at least 5,000 seeds every day. Some birds have to have 80,000 seeds every day. Birds spend a lot of their time hunting food and eating.

Some birds cannot fly, like the ostrich. Ostriches also lay the largest eggs. Their eggs weigh as much as three pounds.

Birds use all kinds of material to build their nests. They use twigs, feathers, grass, leaves, moss, and other things.

You can learn a lot more about birds by visiting this site:  http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/.

All pictures used with permission from Pics4Learning.