Last week I came across this quote in Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson:
“Camille’s rain fell with such ferocity it was said to have filled the overhead nostrils of birds and drowned them from the trees.” (page 89)
The week before I had read a similar quote in Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm. This “fact” struck me a spurious so I put the question to the Teeming Millions:
Is this true? Does anyone know the source of this fact? Is it verifiable?
I got a couple of WAGs, a well thought out response from Wood Thrush (though she did deal more with wind trauma and birds and the phenomena of hurricanes transporting birds many miles from where they should be) which had a couple of great points I’ll deal with in a minute.
I decided to use e-mail to contact the authors, thinking that they may have used the same cite.
I continued the next day asking assistance in tracking down the reference in Isaac’s Storm.
With bibliophage’s help I also tracked down Dr. Hugh E. Willoughby, who was of great help.
I continued yesterday, establishing a line of references, more contacts, and coming to two tentative answers.
With a little more poking and prodding and a surprise e-mail from brachyrhynchos (and ornithologist at Rutgers University) and we had an answer!!!
Do birds drown in hurricanes because of their upturned nostrils?
**No. The majority of birds get out of the way of the storm, of those that remain, most die of trauma. Dr. Willoughby put it best, “From an avian perspective, a midair collision with just about anything at those speeds would clearly ruin the whole day.”
The remainder die from exposure, and exhaustion and for those birds transported many miles away from their primary food source, starvation (but not immediately after the storm)!**
Dr. Willoughby leans toward exposure. brachyrhynchos also leans toward exposure due to the exhaustion of fighting hurricane force winds.
Can a bird drown? Certainly, if you hold ‘im under water long enough.
Can the placement of a bird’s nostril exacerbate the chances of its drowning? Not likely, from an ornithologist’s view.
I give you brachyrhynchos:
*So, let’s look at this from another point of view. Morphology/behavior: Most birds have nostrils (nares) located on the upper mandible (bill). (Kiwis have them located on the bill tip, while others lack nostrils entirely, breathing through an area at the gape of the mouth.) Nostrils open into the inside of the mandible, allowing air flow to pass through sensory organs and other structures, warming the air before it passes out of the mandible through the choana and on to the lungs. Air passes from the choana through the trachea before entering the respiratory system, much like mammals. And, like mammals, air can also pass through the mouth, bypassing the nostrils, before entering the trachea. If nostrils fill up, the bird has to merely open its mouth to continue breathing. In addition, if the bird drops the bill down, water should be able to drain from the nostrils (assuming it can pool there in the first place).
Many birds do not have exposed nostrils, but rather, are covered with a variety of structures. Some have bony tubes (Procellariformes = the “tubenoses” like albatross and petrels) through which concentrated salt water can dribble or even be forcibly ejected), some have fleshy protuberances that partially or entirely cover the nares (Columbiformes = doves and pigeons) and some have bristles (my favorite, the Corvidae = crows, raven, magpies, and jays) that again cover the nares either partially or entirely. Some birds, like cormorants, which have no nostrils, can close up their specialized gapes through which they normally breathe when they dive for food.
For behavior, the Procellariformes, as well as others, often display head shaking associated with getting rid of excess fluids in the nostrils. Other birds have the capability of getting rid of excess salt fluids through visibly ejecting it (petrels). And many, many birds just simply fly out of harms way. We KNOW that birds get blown off course and go to great lengths to avoid large storms because they end up in the weirdest places – in Nova Scotia, October 1969, a Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) was observed alive and later found dead (had been shot). Also true for other Caribbean species such as the White Ibis and Sooty Tern.
So, birds would seem to have mechanisms that help them avoid drowning.”*
Damn, woman! Where were you when I needed a lab partner for biology!! Birds just aren’t made to drown easily – evolution in action!
OK, you’re thinking, “Yeah, yeah. If you want me to believe it Chief, stick a couple of birds in the path of a hurricane and lets see, once and for all, if they drown or not!”
I don’t have to. A couple of sicky field ornithologists did it for us:
- The effects of Hurricane Agnes on growth and survival of Tern chicks in Florida
“Weights and wing lengths of banded Sooty Tern chicks were measured on Bush Key, Try Tortugas Islands, Florida, before, during, and shortly after the passage of Hurricane Agnes in June 1972. Recoveries of banded birds during the storm indicated a mortality of 24% in the banding area even before the storm had reached its peak. Birds less than 10 days of age suffered the greatest losses. Many birds failed to gain weight during the storm and disappearance of young was weakly but significantly correlated with low body weight. Wing growth was retarded in young birds before the storm reached its peak, and in all birds before the storm had ended. Noddy Terns nesting on the island were apparently unaffected by the storm. Mortality of Sooty Tern chicks resulting from Agnes was probably caused by exposure to cold and rain rather than by starvation. Adult terns did not brood very small chicks, perhaps because difficulty of foraging made long foraging periods necessary. Older chicks were badly soaked by the heavy rains.” – . J Field Ornithology, 47(1): 54-71. *
The above bolding is my own. Notice it doesn’t say anything about drowning.
Dr. Willoughby feels land birds are also more susceptible to dying of exposure during a hurricane than sea birds like ducks and terns. They have less of the natural oils which keep birds dry and subsequently these oils would wash away quicker in water propelled by hurricane winds.
Wood Thrush touched on many of these themes but felt that starvation was the ultimate factor. I had initially dismissed this line of thinking because the birds were found immediately after the storm. But I must say she mentioned exhaustion and exposure too.
Thanks to both authors, Erik Larson and Sebastian Junger, Dr. Willoughby, Roger A. Pielke Sr and his son Roger Junior (the best and kindest father and son scientist team I’ve ever come across), Crown Books, The Zoology Departments of Penn State and University of Miami (You go Chrissy, keep flappin’!), the librarians at Harper’s Magazine, bibliophage, Wood Thrush, and finally a hearty handshake and a pat on the back to brachyrhynchos.
[Coding cleaned up. -manhattan]
Give me a break! I’m only in eigth grade!