Exploding bird

There are theories about exploding birds. Most of them are urban legends.
Some people believe feeding birds with dry grains, such as rice, barley or wheat, the seeds would expand in volume in birds' stomachs and cause them to explode (some people throw birdseed at weddings instead due to concern about the fate of birds eating rice). This is false. Species such as the bobolink regularly eat rice and other raw grains in the field.

To make dried seeds expand in volume, the seeds need to absorb water. Since the density of water remains more or less the same, eating small amounts of seeds would not have much effect.

Some people believe feeding birds with Alka-Seltzer or similar products may cause the birds to explode. This is not true. Even if Alka-Seltzer releases a good amount of carbon dioxide when dissolved in water, the bird could still burp. A related common urban legend is that feeding a bird a paracetamol tablet will cause an explosion. While doing so would probably kill the bird, it would not explode.

Actual exploding birds

During spring training, in Tucson, Arizona, March 25, 2001, baseball pitcher Randy Johnson threw a fastball that struck a dove in flight, causing it to "explode" mid-air in a cloud of feathers. The video is one of the most famous and popular clips exhibited in modern sports blooper reels.

During World War II, noted American behaviorist B.F. Skinner received $25,000 in government funding for Project Pigeon, the development of a pigeon-guided missile.

Exploding birds in fiction

*In the DreamWorks animated feature film Shrek, a bird explodes as a result of trying to out-sing Fiona.
*Monty Python's Flying Circus features a sketch with an exploding penguin. There was no visible biological reason, nor explosives; it was just eight o'clock.
*In the Family Guy episode, "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" (Season One, Episode Seven), a bird explodes due to intense heat.
*The computer game Worms: The Director's Cut was the first in the series to feature the "Homing Pigeon", which flies around the terrain in an attempt to reach its target before exploding.
*The movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge features a family's pet bird flying around insanely in the living room, attacking the family before suddenly exploding. The family credits the crazy behaviour and explosion to "intense heat from the broken heater"
*On the television show "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius," Jimmy Neutron once killed a chicken-like alien organism by making it drink large amounts of soda. According to the show, the carbon dioxide released in its stomach made it explode because "chickens can't burp".
*In the video game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, prinnies are a type of demonic penguin that explode when thrown.
*In two episodes of The Simpsons, Lisa tells Marge not to throw rice at weddings because birds will explode if they eat it (to which Bart replies, "Why am I just learning this now?", grabs the bag of rice and runs outside). In another episode when Selma marries Homer's father, he throws rice at the wedding. Lisa tells him that the rice would cause the birds to explode and behind her some pigeons explode after eating the rice. Homer gets an idea to do it to Selma.
*In the movie How High, Method Man and Redman break into the dean's office of Harvard University and dispense alka-seltzer like pills on the floor. They then open the windows and allow pigeons to come in and eat the pills. This causes them to explode all over the dean's office.

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