Very new research has shown that the beak is a


primary cooling structure in birds. Like an elephant’s ears, the beak has lots of blood vessels (which facilitate cooling while panting during hot weather). In toucans 60% of cooling takes place through the beak. Significantly, the beak does not lose water as it cools the bird down. This would be very important for a desert- dwelling bird like the budgie. With the


proportionately much smaller beak in the show budgie (compared to the wild budgie), which is also tucked into the huge insulating mask feathers, cooling on a hot day would be very difficult indeed. This adds to the enormous load that the modern show bird has to carry. Without any budgie breeder or judge intending to do so, our show standards have done enormous damage to our beautiful little birds.


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BIRD SCENE


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