# crying birds

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-birds/111404>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 29, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-birds/111404 "2002-05-29T18:11:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-birds/111404/1 "2002-05-29T18:11:08Z")

</div>

We saw a blue bird yesterday.  
My son said it sounded like it was crying. It wasn’t giving its usual melodic chirp.  
Can birds cry?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-birds/111404/2 "2002-05-29T21:01:38Z")

</div>

It depend what you mean by crying. If you mean tears shedding from the eye the way we do it, no. Birds have either no lacrimal gland, or it is very poorly developed. They keep their eyeballs moistened by the sweep of the nictitans, (that fine membrane that you see birds blink with) which has a set of specialized epithelial cells to coat the eye.

If you mean crying as in cajoling, pestering, or beseeching parents to feed them, yes. A most emphatic yes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-birds/111404/3 "2002-05-29T23:07:18Z")

</div>

well what I meant was, it sounded like it was under diress.

It was by itself.