Eat Like a Bird?

Has anyone ever said you eat like a  bird?  I hope not!

What they usually mean to suggest is that you are eating small quantities of food. But that’s not true about birds at all! In fact, birds eat large quantities of food throughout the day because they have high metabolisms and burn large amounts of energy when they fly. They must constantly replenish their energy source in order to keep flying.

Birds eat differently than we do, too. Since they don't have teeth, they use their beaks to break their food open and to eat. Birds with harder beaks, such as parrots, can break open larger nuts and extract the nut meat inside. Birds with softer beaks are only capable of breaking smaller seed shells, vegetables and grains with husks.

Baby birds gulp their food whole and so have different needs altogether. They need their mothers to chew up their food for them and then pass it into their open, waiting mouths. They then gulp it whole into a sac.

One eating habit that birds and people do have in common is eating in groups. You may see a flock of birds descend on a cornfield as they fly south for the winter. They eat, refuel, and then fly again. We do something similar when we gather together for meals that provide us with the energy to move on to our daily activities.

People and birds do share some qualities when it comes to eating. But if someone tells you, “You eat like a bird,” feel free to tell them that actually, you don’t!