# Only Sea Gulls Poop In-Flight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388 "2000-06-14T19:31:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jebediah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@Jebediah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jebediah)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/1 "2000-06-14T19:31:57Z")
Some one told me quite recently that sea gulls are the only birds that can poop in-flight. I’m sure any claim with “only” in it is false, but just how false? How rare is the ability to poop in mid air? Most importantly, are we safe from flying pidgeons? ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/2 "2000-06-14T19:38:25Z")
- As far as seagulls, penguins and ostriches go, he’s correct. - Otherwise, he’s full of what seagulls do in flight, or alternatively, what all (flying) birds do in flight. - MC ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/3 "2000-06-14T19:44:48Z")
“Birdy, birdy in the sky Why’d you do that in my eye? Aren’t you glad that cows can’t fly?” Any bird in flight will lighten the load if they have to. ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/4 "2000-06-14T19:50:54Z")
i have been hit by an in-flight pigeon. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/5 "2000-06-14T22:13:27Z")
I was watching a Bald Eagle once and I swear he was aiming at me. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/6 "2000-06-14T22:25:16Z")
obviously, you’ve never read about Sam Kinison ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/7 "2000-06-14T23:11:32Z")
I was playing tennis, and the other guy was about to serve. At the very instant that he tossed up the ball, a crow flew over and unloaded. He dodged a facial strike, but the splat covered most of his shoulder. The game was called on account of hysterics (mine). ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/8 "2000-06-14T23:16:15Z")
A neat(?) bit of bird behavior I learned is that if a bird is perched and he poops he will take off shortly after. I have witnessed more kinds of birds pooping than I care to remember, the worst was being caught under a flock of gulls that had a mass excavation. I can still hear the sounds of their depth charges hitting the pavement. Keith ---
**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:** [June 14, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/9 "2000-06-14T23:56:24Z")
…and many, many birds poop in flight. I catch birds, band them, and release them. I’d say about 80% of them let loose after they take off. (Too many also do it while I’m holding them - they seem to have an endless supply.) Perhaps it’s to lighten the load or maybe it’s a defense mechanism “aimed” at any potential predator that could be trailing behind (Odie, were you chasing those innocent gulls - good thing they weren’t cormorants. They’d have barfed on you. Yuck). At any rate, I’ve seen chickadees, thrushes, warblers, hawks, wrens…well, just about everyone doing it. Course, I guess if some giant creature grabbed me, I’d be pooping all over the place too. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/10 "2000-06-15T00:30:24Z")
I can remember reading about the great Foo birds of Bolivia. If they hit you, it is considered bad luck to remove the feces until it dries. Roughly translated, the custom is “If the Foo shits, wear it”. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/11 "2000-06-18T08:07:23Z")
I read that a city in California would be killing geese because they lay about 3 pounds of manure a day each, and its turning into a health hazard. Man, that’s a lot of poop from a small animal. If it was eating right, and learn some toilet training, that would save a lot of these birds, no? ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/12 "2000-06-18T13:10:16Z")
A goose (not having read the story in question, I assume a Canada goose, but _any_ goose) is _not_ a “small animal” by any accepted definition of the term. For some reason (probably having to do with the goslings maturing), the geese at my office complex are wandering all over the campus, and it’s a rare morning when I don’t see a half a dozen adults (and a couple of dozen goslings) blocking my path and hissing at me (I hiss back; despite the fact that geese are not small, I _do_ outweigh them by a considerable factor). Their manure-producing power _is_ impressive, in a perverse way; after all, wild geese principally eat various weeds, which go through them like…umm…grass through a goose. Penalty of a high-fiber, low-nutrition diet. A domestic goose, geting its nutrition in the form of cracked corn, game bird crumbles, and Purina Goose Chow, presumably have less need to leave logs the size of Toostie Rolls all over the parking lot…err…the barnyard. As for the OP, I can personally assure the Teeming Thousands that the common budgerigar (_Melopsittacus undulatus_, FWIW) can relieve itself in flight, when perched, or any damned time it feels like it. Fortunately, a budgie _is_ a small bird, and the turds are small and fairly inoffensive. ---
**Author:** ![DVous\_Means](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@DVous\_Means](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVous_Means)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/13 "2000-06-18T14:08:47Z")
bizerta, a pun that bad cannot go unacknowledged GROAN!!! ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/14 "2000-06-18T22:32:47Z")
I was once driving from State College, PA, to Washington, DC. I saw a couple of eagles soaring around the highway, but couldn’t really get a good look at them. Suddenly, what sounded like a rock hit my hood and windshield, only my windshield was completely covered with a thick white goo. My wipers and fluid could _not_ get me a clear view. I had to roll down the window and take the first exit. One of my friends was following me, and was concerned at my quick exit, thinking I had car trouble. He nearly laughed his ass off when he came up to my car and saw the front completely covered with eagle poop. ---
**Author:** ![orestes543](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b5e925/32.png) [@orestes543](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orestes543)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/15 "2000-06-19T03:35:13Z")
You’ve never met my cockatiel, then, have you? I’d swear she was the one to invent the fly-bys. And if she didn’t, she has at least made it into a very fine art by completely mastering the skill. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Centerline](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Centerline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Centerline)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-sea-gulls-poop-in-flight/22388/16 "2000-06-19T13:56:06Z")
…and there’s that news item a few years back about a 727 coming into Kennedy with a lose evacuation valve in its toilets…