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Getting the Bill – Taste, Touch and Smell in Birds

10,000 Birds

Whilst catfish have around 100,000 taste buds, rabbits around 17,000 and humans approximately 9,000, birds rarely exceed 100 of these receptors. Birds use rectal bristles (at the base of the bill) and tiny touch factories called Herbst corpuscles to detect touch. Let’s talk about taste. Ducks are the avian leaders of bill touch.

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