MadModder
The Breakroom => The Water Cooler => Topic started by: klank on May 21, 2010, 10:47:42 AM
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Why is bird poo almost invariably white?
Its the season for summer swallows and seagulls to dive bomb my car parked in the drive - white splotches everywhere, Rue de la Merde!
This got me idly musing :-
Omnivores' effluent = brownish, herbivores (cow-pats) = brownish/green, but why white for birds?
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Klank
No blackberries! ... purple crap when in season here ....
Dave BC
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Omnivores' effluent = brownish, herbivores (cow-pats) = brownish/green, but why white for birds?
Bird poo is white because of the amount of crystalline urea it contains.
Urea is a by-product of normal digestive processes which ground-dwelling creatures get rid of dissolved in their urine. (The name's a bit of a hint ::))
Water weighs 1000kg per cubic metre, so if you want to fly under your own power you don't want to be carrying too much of it. As an evolutionary modification therefore, birds run their metabolism pretty dry, and don't have a bladder. There simply isn't enough water in a bird's discharge to dissolve the urea, hence the white colour.
Urea also contains a large amount of fixed nitrogen. This is why guano, massive accumulations of petrified bird poo, used to be such a valuable agricultural fertiliser.
Hey, I got to say "poo" twice in a post, and nobody can tell me off for it.......he, he, he......
one_rod.
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ahhhh..... mate...... this the sort of crap that noone is 'supposed' to know..... :doh:
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: its amazing what you learn on this forum ,,,,,never new that one rod ,,,,hope it comes up in the pub quiz :D
:mmr: Rob
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Thanks rod, very nicely put. Birds have no bladder - wow. Does that also apply to Bats?
I seem to remember something about Urea and Wohler's synthesis in Organic Chemistry many many years ago - but it didn't look like bird droppings! Ammonium cyanate?
Oh well - same day, same shhh!
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Rod: Urea is a by-product of normal digestive processes which ground-dwelling creatures get rid of dissolved in their urine.
And good stuff it is, too! In the garden, if no-one is looking, I pee on the compost heap; it seems to speed up decomposition.
My Granddad, whose house now I live in, was more modest, and used a bucket in the garage when outdoors tending his vegetables. When it was half full, he topped up with water, and carefully poured a pattern on the lawn, about 10' x 30'. Within a couple of days his initials were spelled out in lush green grass, to Grandma's strong disapproval.
Andy