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Hang on to your hat!
This just might blow your mind!

White Cloud.png
Watercolour Sand Dunes 7_edited.png
Expressive Seagull Illustration 5_edited
Image by Pawel Czerwinski

Here is the scoop on seagulls and
I am guessing not many of us know about this totally interesting and bizarre fact about them ...

THEY CAN DRINK SEAWATER!!!

I know! That is crazy!

And what is crazier is how they do it!

Seagulls have a special pair of glands above their eyes.
They are called supraorbital glands.
Dare you to say that fast five times!

This is how they work:

The salt they drink is absorbed into their bloodstream and then moves into
the glands.

This salty fluid travels through ducts that go from the glands to
their nostrils.

Next it is excreted from their nostrils.

Then it runs down grooves in the beak.

And finally it drips off the tip of
their beak.

The seagulls shake their heads
and BAM! all that salt they drank
is gone!

Image by Pawel Czerwinski

If seagulls didn't have this amazing way of getting rid of the salt, they would get very sick. Drinking seawater is really bad for our bodies because all the salt in it dehydrates us and that isn't good at all.

And seagulls are not the only birds with supraorbital glands. Some others are penguins, albatrosses, petrels, cormorants, terns, puffins, loons, pelicans, and some ducks.

So here is a shout-out to all the wonderful and awesome things you can learn about nature!
There is more amazing-ness happening on our big blue planet than you can
ever imagine!

Expressive Seagull Illustration 7_edited

Illustrations - permission obtained via store policies and direct communications:

seagulls by CliptomaniaCreations (Etsy)

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