5 unbelievable facts about members of the avian kingdom

These birds sometimes drop insects, earthworms, bread crusts and other objects into the water to attract and catch fish. It's still unknown how exactly green herons figured out a way to use lures.

The vampire ground finch is a small bird endemic to the Galápagos Islands. They mostly feed on seeds and invertebrates, but when these resources are scarce, they prefer to drink blood of other birds, such as blue-footed boobies. Interestingly, the boobies usually don't resist it – the exact reason for this is still unknown.

Take this funny personality quiz to find out which bird of prey is your soul symbol.

The bearded vulture is the only vertebrate whose diet consists of 70-90% bone. Among interesting bearded vulture facts, it's not even the most bizarre one – as it turns out, these birds use red soil to paint their plumage. Most likely, they do it to show their dominance and scare other birds.

If you enjoy these bird facts, these 5 outstanding facts about the shoebill will also amaze you.

Thanks to their impressive wingspan, the longest of any extant birds (up to 3.7 m or 12 ft), albatrosses can use wind currents to fly almost without expending any energy. They spend the first years of their lives flying over the ocean and sitting on water. Only when they are 6 years old or older, albatrosses go to land to mate.

These medium-sized birds are native to southeastern Australia. Bassian thrushs fart toward the ground, which makes the earthworms move and expose themselves to these inventive feathered hunters.