Urban Birds Oust Bugs With Butts
Urban Birds Oust Bugs With Butts
BY CARRIE TATRO JAN 8, 2018
The house sparrows and finches of Mexico City are proud to be called bird brains. And why not? They have figured out how to use one of the most disgusting things on Earth – cigarette butts – to repel two of the other most disgusting things on Earth – ticks and mites. These blood-sucking, feather-feasting ectoparasites are a constant and pervasive threat to the nests of mama birds.
Country birds have easy access to nature's bountiful nest-making materials, including certain insect-repelling herbs and plants. City-dwelling birds, on the other hand, face a concrete and steel urban landscape, and must curate their nests from a more anthropogenic, or man-made, palette.
Enter cigarette butts.
A Dec. 5, 2012 study published in Biology Letters details the ongoing investigation of an urban population of breeding house finches and house sparrows at the National University of Mexico in Mexico City. The authors found that both species interweaved anywhere from a few to a few-dozen smoked cigarette butts into their twiggy, eclectic domiciles. In fact, the study concluded, the more butts, the healthier the nest.
If you just gasped, exhale already. Mama bird knows best.
More:
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/urban-birds-oust-bugs-with-butts.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Science:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/122855249
