can all birds drink salt water

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Seabirds have no problem drinking sea water. The salt they take in is absorbed and moves through their blood stream into a pair of salt glands above their eyes. The densely salty fluid is excreted from the nostrils and runs down grooves in the bill. As the drop gets larger, the bird shakes its head to send the salt back to the ocean. A seabirds skull has a pair of grooves for the salt glands right over the eyes.

How is it that seabirds have no problem drinking sea water? The salt they take in is absorbed and moves through their blood stream into a pair of salt glands above their eyes. The densely salty fluid that results is excreted from the nostrils and runs down grooves in the bill. Watch a gull at the coast, and you will see drops of this liquid appear on the tip of its bill. As the drop gets larger, the bird shakes its head to send the salt back to the ocean. [Gull calls]

A seabird’s skull has a pair of grooves for the salt glands right over the eyes. These grooves are especially large in penguins, loons, albatrosses, gulls, and puffins, but other marine birds have them, too. [Sound of waves]

But don’t confuse drinking with bathing. Some coastal birds prefer to bathe in fresh water and will stop at a river mouth or fly inland to a lake to take their daily bath. They seem to relish the fresh water, but they’re quite able to drink from the sea! [Gull calls]

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Call of the Western Gull provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Western Gull [3362] recorded by C.A. Sutherland. BirdNotes theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and produced by John Kessler. Producer: John Kessler Executive Producer: Chris Peterson © 2015 Tune In to Nature.org April 2017 / 2020 / 2022 Narrator: Mary McCann

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From the Summer 2017 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now.

A human stranded at sea has a big problem. There is plenty of water around, but none to drink. Saltwater worsens dehydration.

However, a lot of marine birds have integrated water desalination filters, including gulls, pelicans, penguins, and albatrosses. These birds can consume prey that is just as salty as seawater, like squid and crabs, or they can drink seawater straight from their bills thanks to ducts and salt glands that remove excess salt from their bodies.

More than 50 years ago, comparative physiologist Knut Schmidt-Nielsen investigated the roles of salt glands in Great Black-backed Gulls. A 150-pound person would need to drink roughly 2 gallons of seawater, which is more than the lethal amount, if a gull were to consume 1/10 of its body mass in seawater during an experiment. The bird completely removed the salt load after three hours, primarily through salt gland excretions (10 times higher than salt elimination from the kidneys).

can all birds drink salt water

Seabirds have no problem drinking sea water. They absorb salt, which then enters their bloodstream and is deposited in two salt glands above their eyes. The highly salted liquid exits the nose and travels through the bill’s grooves. The bird shakes its head to return the salt to the ocean as the drop gets bigger. A pair of salt gland grooves are located directly over the eyes on the skull of a seabird.

But don’t confuse drinking with bathing. Certain seaside birds have a preference for freshwater bathing, and they will make a stop at a river mouth or travel inland to a lake to have their daily wash. Although they can easily sip from the sea, they appear to prefer the fresh water! [Gull calls]

Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York’s Macaulay Library is the source of “Call of the Western Gull.” Western Gull [3362] recorded by C. A. Sutherland. John Kessler produced the theme music for BirdNotes, which was composed and performed by Nancy Rumbel. © 2015 Tune In to Nature Executive Producer: Chris Peterson, Producer: John Kessler org April 2017 / 2020 / 2022 Narrator: Mary McCann.

The salt they consume is absorbed and travels through their blood stream into a pair of salt glands above their eyes, so how come seabirds can drink seawater without any problems? The resulting thick, briny liquid exits the nose and slides down the bill’s grooves. If you observe a gull near the coast, you will notice that the tip of its bill has drops of this liquid on it. The bird shakes its head to return the salt to the ocean as the drop gets bigger. [Gull calls].

Just above the eyes on the skull of a seabird are two salt gland grooves. Although they are present in other marine birds as well, these grooves are particularly large in penguins, loons, albatrosses, gulls, and puffins. [Sound of waves].

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FAQ

What birds can drink salt water?

But many marine birds—such as penguins, gulls, albatrosses, and pelicans—have built-in water desalination filters. With salt glands and ducts connected to their bills that rid their bodies of excess salts, these birds can drink seawater straight up or eat prey, such as squid and crabs, that are as salty as seawater.

Is salty water good for birds?

Most birds cannot drink saltwater because their kidneys are not adapted to excrete the excess salt that would enter their bodies. However, some seabirds, such as gulls and pelicans, have special salt glands located above their eyes that allow them to excrete excess salt from their bodies.

Can any land animals drink salt water?

So for some cats, if they happen to drink too much of it, they can get themselves into very big trouble but even so, generally speaking a healthy cat is currently the only exclusively land dwelling mammal we know of that can drink seawater and not end up with severe dehydration and eventually death for that reason.

Do swans drink salt water?

Mute swans also drink freshwater over saltwater, even though swans CAN drink saltwater. There are glands located near the eyes, just below the skin that extracts salt from the bloodstream, which is exceptionally intelligent if there is no fresh water available.