Birds use their noses

Q: Do birds have a sense of smell?
Lanney, Sandia Park, New Mexico

A: What would a bird smell? They live among treetops where odors scatter quickly. Up there, how could they detect prey, enemies, or mates--by a mere whiff?

"Yet the apparatus for detecting odors is present in the nasal passages of all birds," writes Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye in The Birder's Handbook.

Sparrows, chickens, pigeons, ducks, shearwaters, albatrosses, kiwi, and vultures have a sense of smell. Physiologists can record electrical impulses transmitted through the bird's olfactory nerves, proving that these birds can smell.

(Answered June 2000)