peacewillow's perspective

would it surprise you to know that some scientists estimate that there are 85 billion birds living on earth today?

would it surprise you even more to know that an estimated 35 billion of those birds are chickens being raised for human consumption, either eggs or meat?

the remaining 50 billion birds, are divided into nearly 11,000 different species, varying in their numbers.

the second most populous bird, behind the chicken, is the red-billed quelea, a small, sparrow-like bird, with 1.5 billion of them often overwhelming grain crops in africa, while the humble mourning dove comes in third with 475 million individuals worldwide.

the rarest bird on earth is up for debate, but the new caledonian owlet-nightjar only has an estimated population of 1- 49, so it seems like that would be the one…..

**just a note that different sources calculate things differently, and i relied on multiple sources, including audubon.org to find the numbers used here.

you’ve probably seen an american robin, since there are approx. 370 million of them around the globe…….

as well as a bright red cardinal, with 120 million of them fluttering about.

but seeing a flock of canadian geese strutting down a florida street is a little rarer, even with 5 million or so of them flying here and there every day!

seeing a great egret is fairly common along the coast of florida, but probably not so much in kansas, even tho approx. 2 million of these birds wander earth every day.

but the little blue heron is a rare treat, even for those of us who live in florida! altho there are a little over a million of them on earth, they know how to stay out of sight!!

i hope you enjoyed this little nature break……

now go outside and see what birds hang out in your neighborhood!!