# On the subject of exploding birds...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-exploding-birds/450464>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2008, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-exploding-birds/450464 "2008-05-24T08:19:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-exploding-birds/450464/1 "2008-05-24T08:19:55Z")

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Although Cecil tells us that rice will not cause birds to explode, is it true that if you feed birds Bicarbonate of soda wrapped in bread the released gases will make them explode?

My mum told me this story when I was young, said she’d personally tried it on seaguls.

What’s The Skinny?

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**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-exploding-birds/450464/2 "2008-05-24T14:04:05Z")

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Back when I worked on fishing boats in Westport, Washington, I heard about the exploding seagull myth. Wanting to see what would happen, I bought a bottle of Alka Seltzer and went to find some seagulls. I found a couple will volunteers and gave each an Alka Seltzer tablet which they eagerly swallowed. The first seagull flew into the water and began dipping it’s head repeatedly. It stopped after about 30 seconds then floated about for a bit. The second flew away and went about 50 feet or so and landed on another dock. It flopped around for a few seconds then started pooping all over the place. It stopped after a minute or so and seemed to be in distress. A couple stopped and watched the bird, it just layed on the dock with it’s wing spread out. I got bored after watching the birds after 5 minutes and left. Other that some extreme intestinal distress, the Alka Seltzer did not make the gulls explode.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-exploding-birds/450464/3 "2008-05-24T16:04:44Z")

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Birds are actually pretty sturdily built. Try to pull apart the body of a raw chicken carcass. You’ll have a tough time. The backbone, ribs, and breastbone are pretty tightly connected by ligaments.

So the idea of a bird “exploding” due to internal gas buildup seems very unlikely to me. I suppose that it _might_ be possible for gas to rupture the crop, stomach, or intestines and kill the bird that way. But I see no reason why a bird would be more vulnerable to that than a similarly-sized mammal. To have even a small bird explode you would need some chemical reaction equivalent in power to a cherry bomb or firecracker.