What Is the Weakest Sense in a Bird?

Birds have all the five senses as humans, but each sense is specialized to help birds survive. There is no such thing as the weakest sense- because they use their senses to work in different ways. The usage of sense varies from species to species of birds. If you ask what is the weakest sense in a bird, the answer is ‘touch’. They have little use for touch because their body is covered with feathers.

Bird Senses and How They Use Them

Birds Hearing

Bird’s hearing sense is intensely developed, mostly in owls and bats. Owls can hunt in pitch dark just using its ears and also the birds of prey have the sharpest hearing sense. Sound is also a key communication for birds.    

Bird Sight

The sense of sight is extremely well developed in birds like kites, falcons, and eagles. Eyesight is one of the main things birds rely on for flight and to find their prey.

Most birds have superior vision compared to humans, they have a thicker retina and their eyes are larger in proportion to their head size which makes their vision greater.        

Bird Taste

The sense of taste is less important to birds compared to other animals. Birds are more stimulated by vision than by flavor or scent. Compared to humans birds have 500 taste buds whereas humans have 10,000 taste buds.

Bird Smell

Bird’s sense of smell is less sophisticated because they travel mostly up in the sky. So they won’t be able to detect the smell so high, at the time they arrive down there will be nothing to smell. Before birds evolved wings, they used their olfactory sense. For example, Kiwis used their sense of smell to detect earthworms.     

Bird Touch

This is the weakest sense in a Bird Some animals rely on touch, but birds have little use for that particular sense because their body is covered with feathers. Birds use this particularly for flight, they are highly sensitive to changes in air temperature and wind speed.

Some birds have fewer nerves in their legs, which makes them less sensitive to touch. To know more about various national Birds view here.