UKC

This question is provoked by watching this morning a programme on the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. I got to thinking, I know there are lots of flightless birds, and I have watched the Flamingos in Calpe, they fly in but rarely ever float, I have only ever seen them walking in the lagoon, never swimming.
So could a sparrow or a pigeon etc float on water like a duck if it chose to? Or would it just drown? For that matter can an ostrich or an emu swim?
I realise there is a problem with them not having webbed feet, but can they float?

In reply to Al Evans:

Given that most mammals can float or swim in some manner I'd be amazed if they can't

In reply to Al Evans:

This is blatantly a topic for some one to test for the ignoble prize. Might be hard catching birds and then getting them in the water before they fly away.

In reply to Al Evans:

Floating is one thing, more important is the ability to become airborn again - not many species could manage both.

In reply to Al Evans:

sparrows float.

In reply to Al Evans:

Lots of birds drown on migration, and I believe plenty of young ospreys drown as well before they get the hang of it. So, while all birds presumably float in some sense, being designed as they are to be light, they certainly can't for practical purposes alight on the water, remain there and get off it again.

jcm

In reply to Al Evans:

Some simple physics here . Any object or organism or substance that is less dense than the fluid in which it is sitting will float .
If the density of an Ostrich is less than that of water , then yes it will float.
Density is defined in maths as division of mass (M) by volume (V)
p=M/V

In reply to Al Evans:

I think I read somewhere that ducks only float if they've been practising witchcraft. Hope that helps.

In reply to Al Evans:

Penguins don't float. They are birds

In reply to crossdressingrodney:


I thought it was because of the watertightness of their nether parts

In reply to Al Evans:

Dippers walk under water.
Grebes dive down...
Razorbills swim under water

In reply to higherclimbingwales:


I think you will find that they most certainly do! What's this little fellow doing, if not floating?

http://images.northrup.org/picture/xl/penguin/penguin-swimming-3.jpg

In reply to tlm:

But they all float when they're not actively keeping themselves underwater. Dippers are the best: when they get bored with walking on the bottom, they just let go and bob up to the surface.

I suspect that an ostrich, with its fluffy feathers, would fairly quickly get waterlogged and sink if it found itself in deep water. Other species, it'll depend on how waterproof their plumage is. Only birds evolved for an aquatic lifestyle will likely have adequate waterproofing to float happily for extended periods. I suspect the majority of birds would still float for a while even if dead. for the same reason that human bodies do - plus birds have air pockets within their bones and the quills of their feathers which I imagine could provide a bit of additional buoyancy.

Regarding flamingos, this one seems to be swimming on the surface quite happily: http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/glouces/Family/Slimbridge/Slimbridge... A Google image search for "flamingos swimming" will produce many more relevant hits.

As for grebes, Great Cresteds can walk on water! http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/glouces/Family/Slimbridge/Slimbridge... Grebes can also adjust their buoyancy: they can even submerge without diving, or swim at "periscope depth" with just their head and neck above the surface.

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:


This^

The body may float for a long time before the feathers become so waterlogged it sinks, but the bird will have died - probably from hypothermia or exhaustion. Interestingly, cormorants - despite being a swimming/diving bird - don't have waterproof feathers. They have to waterproof them themselves using fish oil or they would drown.*


*Really hoping this is a genuine fact and not something I would lose ten points for on QI...

In reply to Alyson:


I always thunderstood that all aquatic birds have to preen with some kind of hydrophobic secretion in order to retain water-resistant plumage. I thought that even terrestrial birds do it, at least in temperate regions, to help keep the rain off. I sincerely doubt that cormorants take oil directly from fish and apply it to their feathers, and I can't find any reliable reference to it in any literature that I have access to right now.


I am extremely skeptical about quite a lot of the information that is paraded as "fact" on QI. In an edition of the programme not long ago they awarded Alan Davies thousands of back-dated points because, so they said, a lot of the 'wrong' answers he'd given in the past had turned out to be true on later investigation. I doubt that the QI researchers check more than a couple of sources before deciding to put something in the programme.

In reply to Al Evans:

I had to pull a pigeon out of the canal once, as it couldn't get out after falling in / 'doing a landing' . Much to the amusement of everyone in the pubs beer garden.

In reply to Martin W:

Regarding flamingos, this one seems to be swimming on the surface quite happily: http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/glouces/Family/Slimbridge/Slimbridge...
Ah, but secretly it's walking on the bottom

In reply to Martin W:

Well I know it's not quite as simple as chewing some mackerel then spitting it back out but cormorants have a preen gland. This may be true of all seabirds though I didn't think it was.

In reply to Andypandyroo:


Good man... have 10 hero Points :-D

In reply to Alyson:

Interestingly, cormorants - despite being a swimming/diving bird - don't have waterproof feathers. They have to waterproof them themselves using fish oil or they would drown.*

Think you're getting mixed up and it's easily done.
it's a shag that requires external oil to be added.

In reply to FactorXXX:
They are the same bird family Phalacrocoracidae. Some got called cormorants and some shags but there is no commonly agreed distinction.

In reply to FactorXXX:

Unless of course that noise was a joke going over my head In which case I apologise