Spooky Bird Facts For Halloween

Spooky bird facts for Halloween. It’s Halloween! People are dressing up as goblins and ghouls, carving pumpkins into silly faces and best of all people are gathering to tell each other spooky ghost stories!

But if you want to know some really spooky stories then look no further than nature and wildlife. Here are some real spooky bird facts for Halloween that are garneted to send shivers down your spine!

1.Some Pelicans Can Swallow Birds Whole

Great White Pelicans are some big birds and are known for their iconic huge beaks. there huge beaks can act like giant pouches and fishing nets.

Usually, pelicans will open their mouths whilst flying low over the ocean and use they mouth k=like fishing nets to scoop up food and fish along the way.

Sometimes however, pelicans go looking for food elsewhere and if they open their beaks wide enough they can fit a whole smaller bird in their beak and can swallow it whole.

2. There Are Gangs Of Killer Chicken

Vulturine Guinea Fowl are relatives of chickens, and they are also very very deadly. Vulturine Guinea Fowl hunt in groups and have very sharp beaks that are perfect for capturing and eating small mammals.

On top of that they have sleek dark feathers, a bauld head and bright red eyes, giving them a scary spooky appearance.

3. Birds Can Be Blood Drinking Vampires

Birds like the Hood Mocking Bird and the appropriately named Vampire Finch have a very strange diet, other birds blood!

The Hood Mocking Bird is found in places like the Galapagos islands which sadly doesn’t have enough moisture for the Hood Mocking Bird to drink. That’s why they have adapted to have sharped tipped beaks so they can pierce the skin on other birds and drink their blood.

The Vampire Finch takes this one step furth. The Vampire Finch grabs onto its host and uses its sharp beak to drink the hosts blood. As the Vampire Finch is such a small, light bird which such a tight grip its almost impossible to shake it off.

4. Birds Can Use Siron Songs To Lure Prey To Their Deaths

In spooky stories, myths and legends, sirens are beautiful creatures, often depicted as mermaids, that would lure soldiers to their death with a beautiful siren songs.

Turns out some birds do the same thing. The Great Gray Shrike is a relative of the crow and has a very unusual way of luring prey.

The Great Gray Shrike will mimic a songbird’s mating call. The songbird will then think there is a potential mate calling for them. The Great Gray Shrike hides and when the songbird is close enough, it will strike.

The scariest part is, The Great Gray Shrike isn’t really a raptor or bird of prey. This means it doesn’t have the talons needed to kill the prey. Instead, The Great Gray Shrike implies its prey in the nearest sharp surface, like a thorny bush or barbed wire fence.

Eventually the prey will fall apart and The Great Gray Shrike will consumes it.

5.  More Than 10% Of Bird Species Are Endangered

One the scariest and definitely the saddest spooky bird fact is that more than 10% of bird species are endangered. The IUCN has recognized 742 bird species in recent years, and at least 11% of those species have been found to be threatened or endangered.

What Can I Do To Help Birds?

There are several things that are impacting birds and their numbers, and one of these things is a lack of food.

Several factors like climate change and human urban explosions are negatively impacting birds precious feed and hunting grounds. can help birds that are struggling to find food by leaving bird food out for local wildlife in your garden.

You should really only feed them food that is designed for birds. Whilst it's probably safe to feed them household items or supermarket products, using a bird food specialist is the only way to guarantee the food is 100% safe for birds to eat.

Here at Kennedy Wild Bird Food, we have all kinds of bird food. All our bird food is specially designed to make sure that the birds that visit your gardens and eat at your bird feeders are getting all the nutrients they need.