Why do people think that rice will kill birds?

Question

9/10 people seem to believe that if birds eat rice it will cause them to choke or explode.

How did this myth get started?

I can't believe that you people believe this. Rice is a naturally occuring grain. Birds eat seeds. Rice is a seed. How did this myth get so widespread?

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/birdrice.asp

Answer 1

These are people that believe every thing that others tell them.
These are the people that are easly taken by a scheme.

My law is don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.

I teach my kids, don't believe anyone but me and your mother and I'm not completely certain about your mother.

Answer 2

Ann Landers was one of the first people to publicize this myth. She published a letter she had received from a reader that suggested rice would swell in the stomachs of birds and kill them. Although she published a retraction soon after, the wedding rice meme proved to be quite hardy.

There are several reasons why dried rice isn't bad for birds at all. These have to do with the anatomy of birds, the water absorption of grain, and the cooking characteristics of rice.

Commercial birdseed is often a mix of sunflower, millet, and safflower seeds. Thistle seeds are sometimes used in specialized feeders. These, like rice, are all dried seeds, and it's obvious that birds eat these all the times. If you soak any of these seeds in water, they will all swell. If you put a couple of rice kernels in for comparison, you will notice that they also swell and at the same rate- very slowly. It will take a couple of hours for them to swell up.So a pigeon that has eaten a lot at a wedding has a little time before it ruptures.

That same greedy bird hasn't even put the rice in its stomach yet. When it swallowed the rice, it slid down into a highly expansible portion of the esophagus called the crop. This is an evolutionary adaptation that allows the bird to store a lot of food, but digest it at their leisure. Or not- in order to feed their nestbound young many birds will regurgitate food out of their crop and into the mouths of their chicks. The crop is specifically able to distend and to empty easily. A bird with a sudden swelling problem in its crop could just puke up the excess.

The large amount of swelling we notice in cooked rice is caused by the cooking process. When it is steamed, the rice kernel absorbs significantly more water, and a lot faster, than a kernel just soaked in water.

There is another reason not to throw rice at wedding that has nothing to do with birds. The bride is probably wearing elegant high-heeled shoes. With a lot of hard rice kernels rolling around underfoot, she might lose her footing and slip. Thus it is that by following a rather erroneous urban legend, the wedding party is nevertheless protected from accidents on their happy day.

Answer 3

Rice and exploding birds is a MYTH. It always has been a myth, and it always will be a myth.

"You may have heard that, when birds eat rice thrown at a wedding, the rice swells so much inside their bellies that they pop. Sounds awful, doesn't it? But have you ever seen any exploding birds after a wedding? It never happens. In fact, birds are often big pests in rice fields. Some rice farmers may wish the pesky birds would explode, but they never do!" The National Wildlife Federation

"Uncooked, milled rice is no more harmful to birds than rice in the field, Cheesman said. The Curator of Ornithology at the University of California at Berkeley"

Edit - I see that some people refuse to look at scientific data provided by experts in the field of Ornithology. (Links) I have been looking and looking for one scientific article that states birds die from eating rice. All I can find are articles that state it is a myth. So if the people who believe it is fact could they please site their reference. Thank you.

Answer 4

I can't believe there's so many people still believing this!

No idea how it got started but did no one stop to think that birds might just eat rice straight from the field?

For those of you with all your "scientific" explanations why such a silly myth is true...at least read Snopes' explanation: http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/birdrice.asp

Answer 5

It is believed by some that when birds eat the rice and then drink water, the rice swells up. So, if the birds ate enough rice and drank enough water, the rice would swell enough to cause the bird to either choke or EXPLODE.

Answer 6

Sightings: In The Simpsons episode of 14 May 2000, Bart is warned not to throw rice at Otto's wedding, lest he cause birds to explode. Also, in the 16 July 2001 episode of the TV soap opera Passions Charity told Tabitha that they don't throw rice at weddings anymore, stating this legend's premise as the reason. And in an episode of the TV sitcom Cybill ("Bachelor Party," original air date 6 January 1997), Holly (Ira's fiancée) dictates that rice won't be thrown at her wedding because it "makes pigeons explode."

Answer 7

I'm not sure how it got started, but people think rice kills birds because the rice expands in bird's stomach fluids the way it does in water and makes the poor birds explode. It's funny because it's ridiculous.

Answer 8

It's an urban legend that some say got started, or at least propelled, when Ann Landers gave advice in her column in the mid-sixties that the rice would do bad things to birds.


My church didn't want rice thrown......they didn't want to have to clean up the mess, said rice was hard to sweep up....

Answer 9

Rice is a grain, but it is not found plentifully lying on the ground out side is hull. Therefore when birds eat their fill then drink water the bulk does kill them. There is no myth.

Answer 10

While rice is a naturally occuring "seed", it acts differently than most. Birds do not have stomachs, they have gizzards. Gizzards do not naturally expand like mammal's stomaches do. When a bird eats rice, and it reaches liquid in the gizzard, it can cause the gizzard to burst, since it has no elasticity.

Answer 11

It is not a myth, birds eat the seeds till they are full,then like a rice cooker the rice expands causing their stomachs to expand/explode....this is why it is suggested not to throw rice at a wedding.