Can birds smell or?

Question

do they rely on their vision for locating food?

Answer 1

Most scientists agree that birds have practically no sense of smell (judging by their nasal cavities and the olfactory lobes of the brain). But there are exeptions. Kiwis, for example, have poor eyesight and hunt worms using their sense of smell. Several species of tubenoses which can detect the smells of fish oils floating on the surface of the sea, allowing them to find schools of fish or anchovies because their messy feeding causes an oily scum to form on the surface of the sea. The third group of birds definitely known to use smell to locate food are the vultures - both old world and new world species have been shown to find carcasses by smell to varying degrees. The turkey vulture also has a highly developed sense of smell. That's why pipeline companies use them to locate breaks in gas pipes. They put ethyl mercaptan, which smells like rotting meat, through the pipeline. Then they wait a day or two and find the spot above the line where the vultures are hovering in greatest numbers!
Other groups of birds with well developed olfactory lobes, but for which the actual evidence of the use of smell to locate prey is lacking, include various waders, many water birds, nightjars and swifts.

Answer 2

Most birds have an extremely poor sense of smell. This is where the old wives tale comes into play, "if you touch a baby bird they can not be placed back with the parents because the parents will smell that the baby was touched by a human" This is completely false. There are some birds that use a sense of smell to find prey i.e. Vultures. But most don't. A Great Horned Owl loves to catch Skunks but because their sense of smell is so poor they are not affected by the infamous musk that the skunk produces. Most birds recognize their food by sight or routine. If a song bird visits the same bird feeder each day, they will routinely visit the same feeder each day knowing that there is food readily available. Then the recognize the seeds they prefer to eat.
Hope that helps a bit :)

Answer 3

A bird's sense of smell is rather weak especially when compared with their eyesight. Generally, birds can see about eight-times better than humans however our sense of smell is about three-times better than a bird's. An interesting point to this however is if a pet bird is in or near a kitchen where something is being cooked in a teflon pan, the pan emits a gaseous material (Polytetraflouethylene) that is undetectible to people but it will kill a bird should the bird inhale the fumes. Smaller birds can die immediately or it could take longer as these fumes can linger. They can also be picked up by an air current or hosehold fan. These fumes stay around and if picked up by a breeze or air current, are swirled around and may hit one bird but not another. It's not the same thing as smell but is something everyone that has a pet bird should know about.

Answer 4

Most birds (passerines) have a poor sense of smell. Some birds(vultures, kiwis) that must depend on smell to find food do have an excellent sense of smell.

Answer 5

Most birds have a poor sense of smell but some vultures and sea birds have a good one.

Answer 6

They can definitely smell, but not nearly as strongly as we can or as strongly as they can see. Their level of vision is very high, so vision is likely the sense used for nearly everything, including locating and foraging food.

Answer 7

They can definitely smell. I have a bird that goes crazy trying to put his head in my mouth when I've had Nacho chips, lol.

Answer 8

birds might be able to smell , but a quick eye an their wings must help also .!

Answer 9

I think they can smell but vision would be there strongest sense. =)

Answer 10

oh yes they can smell thats why strong scents like a air freshener can be toxic.