Getting the Bill – Taste, Touch and Smell in Birds
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 18, 2012
A Dominican missionary in Mozambique in the 16th century was astounded to find honeyguides eating the wax from his altar candles! Birds use rectal bristles (at the base of the bill) and tiny touch factories called Herbst corpuscles to detect touch. Honeyguides, for example, are strongly attracted to the smell of wax.
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