Aldo's Mute

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The handsome Aldo, our American Kestrel, is always a show-stopper during raptor programs. But he really stops the show when he mutes. The moment gets a few chuckles from the audience, but I don't pass up this opportunity to make his amusing behavior educational. Some people might call it a poop, but birds do #1 and #2 at the same time, so it's called a "mute." 

There are actually three components to bird waste. The dark spot is the fecal itself. A clear liquid surrounding it is urine. And the thicker white stuff is made up of urates, the material that birds, reptiles, and insects use to excrete excess nitrogen.




Aldo's mutes don't catch me by surprise very often. I can always tell when a mute is coming by the way he backs up and lifts his tail. This early warning sign gives me a few seconds to move Aldo away from an inappropriate muting surface, like my foot or the office carpet.

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