These days, the heat wave that has come to stifle the earth is not receding. If despite this, you attempt the adventure of leaving your home and looking up, you’ll notice that the birds also seem to be hot.
From seagulls to chickens, including pigeons, birds keep their beaks wide open, and sometimes even stick out their tongues. How can this funny expression be explained?
It is actually a thermoregulation mechanism, which allows birds to lower their body temperature during heatwaves. For them, it’s a matter of life and death: heat episodes cause high mortality among chicks.
Birds Stick Out Their Tongues
Opening the beak leads to the expiration of hot air: simply put, the bird ventilates itself. So far, it’s just like us.
But why on earth stick out the tongue, condemning themselves to an appearance that borders on the ridiculous? It’s another means to fight against the overheating of the body. By putting its tongue in contact with the ambient air, the bird tries to cool its blood vessels. The cooled blood then irrigates the rest of the body and lowers the thermometer. Practical, especially since birds cannot sweat.
Finally, one might rightfully wonder why birds, if they want to cool off, don’t fly away to cut through the fresh air. But like us, who don’t really feel less hot when we run, birds must exert a colossal effort to fly.
