Birds can't smell or tatse?

[Trance Music]

I feel like I should do a Myth Busters on this!

 

I'm sure we all heard this at one time or another and the example is some sort of HOT pepper that humans can't eat but birds will like it's an icecream sandwich! I'm not a bird person as most of you are, I have my Grey and that's as far as it goes. However, I refuse to be blinded by what I am told and what I see and know about nature.

 

I'm leaving this up for debate and will chime in more later but let me point out Vultures, ducks, and humming birds.

 

Vultures, they can smell death from miles away including dead animals hidden under brush so sight doesn't play here.

 

Ducks/Goose, I can throw breed in my front yard and the geese from the pond in the neighborhood will find it.

 

Humming Bird, you don't need to color sugar water RED for these birds to find sweet smelling sugar water! Color might help but...

 

I know people "experts" like to say dogs are color blind, birds can't taste etc... I know tests for this or that have been doing (the rat learned to push the red button to get food)... blah blah blah. This is a world where (humans don't really apply much in this logic as anyone can breed these days) the strongest and most adaptable survive.

 

I'd like to hear others thoughts on if birds can smell and taste.

 

I leave you with the HOT pepper thought. Just because we eat it doesn't mean another animal can't. How many foods do Humans eat that would kill or harm other types of animals? Each animal was built to survive in its own way! I can give Bravo a carrot and while I try something else and he wont even give it a sniff.

Edited May 3, 2012 by Trance Music

[Mistyparrot]

Of course birds can smell but different birds have senses of smell that are tuned to their natural niche. There is research that suggests that pigeons use smell as well as magnetic fields to help navigate.

I am sure that my Grey Misty has a sense of smell but I don't think it is that sensitive. Likewise he definitely has a sense of taste and can taste sweet and probably other tastes as well but parrots are not at all sensitive to the hot taste of chilli peppers. In fact parrots and other birds help propagate peppers in the wild. Parrots and humans have more than 100million years of evolutionary divergence so it would be surprising if their smell and taste senses were not different from humans and other mammals.

 

Steve and Misty (Who smells very good!)

[snoepgoed123]

my breeder told me that parrots have a limited amount of tastebuds (i think he said 16) things like peppers have capsaicin (the thing that makes it spicy) so it could just be that parrots don't have the receptors that let them experience the heat like we do

[Dave007]

Parrots can taste ---good to the masses of cats

Parrots can smell---if Arrid Deluxe isn't used.

[danmcq]

LOL Dave!!!

 

Parrots do have limited taste buds and limited smell.

Edited May 4, 2012 by danmcq

[danmcq]

Trance, you should add another answer to your poll - "Limited taste and smell". If you asked a dog if humans could smell, they would laugh and say "Well yes, but they are severely handicapped at it".

[aerial.2000]

lol i said on the fence lol I do know they sure are picky at what they like so it must be from taste or smell or texture? ... marco has found blueberries as a favorite all of a sudden she'll pick them out first before eating anything else :rolleyes:

[Dave007]

I am not really sure what I have to say. Although I have topics of people, places and things that are the basis of emotions that control the present dilemma. However, I feel that there is something deeper involved in the melancholy that is smell and taste. There is an underlying facet that hones the sadness which is the sum of planetary existence.

Will it be read by the masses or will I just discard it as so much rubbish? Perhaps another tortured soul will be able to comprehend the discourse or maybe someone with an inkling of understanding will come and rescue us from our ignorance. In any event, I am sure that it is in the writing of this statement that I am to locate my medicine.

It seems that answers are actually just one's opinion. Whether collective or independent, if the conclusion to the question is sufficient to smooth over the rough waves of the soul and mind, then the conclusion is deemed holy. Oh how we grasp at anything that might rationalize our glee. Or our sorrow.My conscience screams. Disalusioned enlightenment leads to despair. Death can not be found but it is never far away. Mortality is reborn to create more misery. We search frantically for a cure to the disease we have spawned. Satisfaction in the present is stifled by the future. The future is in turn destroyed by the shame of the past. Alone, I converse with myself.

Chicken or the egg?

[danmcq]

Well I ask Dave in return. Which expert orators can scarce effect by all their little artifice of eloquence, to wit, a raising the attentions of their auditors to a composedness of thought, this a bare look from me has commanded?

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

I'll leave this between Dave and danmcq. In my opinion, all birds have a sense of taste and smell. Sophie has her likes, and dislikes. She picks and chooses. Never an issue. She eats quite well. Nancy

[cheebamaster]

The reason why I appear in this odd kind of garb, you shall soon be informed of, if for so short a while you will have but the patience to lend me an ear; yet not such a one as you are wont to hearken with to your reverend preachers, but as you listen withal to mountebanks, buffoons, and merry-andrews; in short, such as formerly were fastened to Midas, as a punishment for his affront to the god Pan.

[Mistyparrot]

Dave. Egg!

 

 

 

Steve n Misty

[vlmuke]

When I worked as a zookeeper our orninthologist?? sorry I don't know the spelling, said that the only species of bird that can smell are vultures, but he said all birds can taste, I thought taste and smell went hand in hand but what do I know.

I do agree with the OP, this is what I have been told

ducks and geese I think its all by repetition or conditioning, the reason why I say this when I used to go to the park for lunch I would watch the other people feeding the the ducks and geese they always parked in the same spot, when I parked there they came up to me begging for food, but if I parked in a different spot they left me alone

Hummingbirds been told its by eyesight something in the sugar they can see in the UV spectrum

Again this I what I have been told I do know Greys can taste as Fergie Likes some foods and not others, for example she likes pork and shrimp ramen noodles but not chicken

Edited May 4, 2012 by vlmuke
Added more

[Dave007]

Well I ask Dave in return. Which expert orators can scarce effect by all their little artifice of eloquence, to wit, a raising the attentions of their auditors to a composedness of thought, this a bare look from me has commanded?

 

Dr. Seuss and Helen Keller

[Talon]

I don't know what some of you guys are smokin here, but I want some! Lol

[aerial.2000]

was it just me or did everything go over your head too? :confused:

[Luvparrots]

Well, I have to say that Ana Grey always knows when I am going to sit down with a dish of breakfast/lunch or dinner. The bird room is out of sight to the kitchen and living room so i believe she has a sense of smell. As for taste, she also chooses what she likes to eat and what to ignore.

[Mistyparrot]

I don't know what some of you guys are smokin here, but I want some! Lol

 

I will have mine in a cookie!

 

Steve n Misty

[Mistyparrot]

When I worked as a zookeeper our orninthologist?? sorry I don't know the spelling, said that the only species of bird that can smell are vultures, but he said all birds can taste, I thought taste and smell went hand in hand but what do I know.

I do agree with the OP, this is what I have been told

ducks and geese I think its all by repetition or conditioning, the reason why I say this when I used to go to the park for lunch I would watch the other people feeding the the ducks and geese they always parked in the same spot, when I parked there they came up to me begging for food, but if I parked in a different spot they left me alone

Hummingbirds been told its by eyesight something in the sugar they can see in the UV spectrum

Again this I what I have been told I do know Greys can taste as Fergie Likes some foods and not others, for example she likes pork and shrimp ramen noodles but not chicken

 

It seems that Audubon propagated the myth that birds can't smell by performing a flawed test on turkey vultures. He tried to entice them with the smell of meat so rotten that even they thought it distasteful!

Here is a link to a more detailed article: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_8_168/ai_n15393211/

 

Steve n Misty (who still smells good:))

[danmcq]

Sorry we got a little zany.

 

Steve posted a good link and he is right, there had been many wrong theories over the last hundred years in regards avian smell and taste abilities. Science is learning more each day, as always. Ever bird species is unique in what senses are important for survival.

 

One of the best studies I have found so far on various birds can be found at: http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdbrain.html

 

There is no doubt our greys do taste and smell. Just from personal observation of my grey and conure, texture seems to be very high on the eat or toss priorities, next would be the taste if it did not get tossed the instant they picked it up.

[vlmuke]

Steve, great link, its very interesting, one of the things I have learned is Turkey birds do prefer fresh over rotting, if given the choice they prefer fresh killed over rotting, who wouldn't right, but if food is scarce they will eat rotting meat, I see them all the time on the rails, I have always wondered if birds can smell or not too, as I have always found it hard to believe that birds couldn't smell, but Like in my previous post have always gone by what more educated people have told me.

[Jayd]

Hi, as most Amazon caregivers know, most Zon's will release a musk like odor from the area of there Naries. [nostrils] A young Zon will do this at will, a mature one doe's it to draw attention.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Talon... I thought it was just me, but I would add cheeebamaster as smokin the same stuff! LOL They didn't invite us too the party. I knew they were quoting something! I know now some of it was Helen Keller and Dr. Seuss. Not sure what the rest of it was! Nancy

[JeffNOK]

I have no doubt that Gracie can taste what she eats. One example is cheddar cheese. Now we all know that cheddar cheese comes in mild, medium, and sharp varieties. They all look the same, but Gracie will not eat sharp cheddar. When she sees me slice a piece a cheese she immediately chirps and comes for a bite. Once I had sharp cheddar and she just spit it out. She always eagerly eats the mild. This was not a one time thing. She always devours the mild cheese and spits out the sharp. She must be tasting it.

[Wingy]

I don't know about the Quakers because they devoured everything but the zon knew the smell of favorite foods. That bugger could tell when we went out to eat and someone had pizza. He had to have smelled it.