Birds distinguish odors

Q: Are birds able to distinguish odors ?

Male Mallards can smell a female's breeding odors.  Photo courtesy of Pedro Ramirez Jr and the US Fish & Wildlife Service

A: The avian sense of smell has been traditionally underestimated, says Frank B. Gill, Senior Vice President for Science at Audubon in his book, Ornithology.

Most birds have small smell centers (olfactory bulbs) in their brain. Earlier researchers thought that only a few birds (vultures, kiwis and petrels) with large nerve smell centers used their sense of smell. "Now that view is changing," says Gill, "most birds probably can smell and use odors in their daily routines."

For example:

• Male Mallards smell a female's breeding odors
   
• Goslings learn to choose and reject food plants by smell
   
• Leach's Storm-Petrels can smell krill (small shrimp-like creatures) from incredible distances (potentially 1.5 to 15 miles), and then follow the odor upwind to the food source.

Further Surfing:

Birds & Science, Audubon

BirdWatchers Digest

USGS Biological Resources