A right earful...!

Ears! We would look ridiculous without them…but, funnily enough, birds don’t!

So why do some birds appear to have no ears? Well, imagine having a conversation
on a very windy day, all that wind blowing through your ears. If birds had the same ears as us, the wind they encounter whilst flying would thunder around their ‘ear-flaps’ and they would not be able to hear very well.

Instead, most birds have ear holes, which are covered by tiny feathers designed to cut down that thunderous sound. These ear holes are located at the side of the bird’s head and are sometimes nearly as big as their eyes. Of course, birds can hear very well, about as well as we do. Some birds can even catch food just by listening to creatures scampering across the floor.

Owls are the exception to this as some have small ear-like tufts on top of their heads clearly marking where their ears are.

So having little ears is a small price to pay for being able to fly…and hear that mating call at the same time!