That our car roof was a roosting place for incredibly noisy and thus large birds. It wasn't until I was six that I noticed that these bird landings corresponded exactly with my Dads arm being out of the car window.

Chris

i thought chickens laid peanuts.

pikl

Actually my niece. The first time she a penquin she took what she had in her available lexicon and came up with "Cowduck". Pretty smart for a 2 year old

Naomi

Back in the day when it was safe to walk home from kindergarten by yourself, my mom had one rule: that we cross the street holding the teacher's hand.

So one day, I didn't wait for the teacher and ran across the street. When I got home, my mom asked me why I didn't cross the street with the teacher. I was perplexed as to how she knew. When I asked, she replied that a little bird told her (she used to run up an alley to the school, watch us cross the street and run home).

For the next couple of years I was convinced that my mom talked to birds. I was very careful to make sure none were around if I were breaking rules!

Ricky B.

I used to believe that birds had special boots that protected them from the electricity when they stand on high wires

Jhex

I believed our budge could not only speak English but also read. I would write him notes with little instructions on. When he didn't follow the instructions, I assumed he was just being bloody-minded.

Pearcey

From the time I was a child, I believed penguins were man-sized. All the pictures I ever saw of them they were standing on ice, with nothing to reference their size. I am 57 and it wasn't until a few years ago that I learned differently.

Joan, in Australia now

When I was small I thought that birds must be made from electricity! How else could they stand on the power cables?
It took me 5 years before figure out the physics behind it!

Hazza

When I was little I used to believe seagulls were called 'seagirls' and no matter how hard my mum tried to get me to say seagulls, I always replied 'Yes, SEAGIRLS! That's what I said!'.

It was only until years later when i saw it written down that I realised! D'oh!

Kate L

When I was small (6 or 7 I believe), my mother bought me an easter chick at the market. An easter chick is a live baby chicken that had been dyed in one of several pastel colors and sold in the days leading up to easter (I grew up in the country in Puerto Rico).

Anyhow, the chicken was my only pet when I was growing up. I grew extremely attached to the chicken and proudly ate the egg she laid every night for breakfast the next day. I had her for a long time in the backyard until one day she ran away!

It was not until I was 30 (a couple of years ago) that it occured to me that the chicken soup we had that same day may not have come from the supermarket!

Javier

My mother told me that the first sound of a morning was the birds tweeting and farting in the trees as they woke up to start the day. I was always trying to wake up early enough to hear them as I had never heard a bird fart.

Debbie

As a kid, my mom told me that chicken eggs from the supermarket wouldn't hatch because they needed to be "fertilized" -- for a shamefully long time, I thought this meant that the farmer went into the henhouse with a bucket of fertilizer (like the stuff my dad put on the lawn) and sprinkled it over the eggs.

Melissa

I once saw an illustration of bird flight in a book and for a long time I thought there were separate breeds of geese called 'upstroke' and 'downstroke'.

Mike B. London

When I was a kid I used to think that lesser spotted birds were one that were few in number. I thought if not many bird watchers saw a particular type of bird it was referred to as lesser spotted!

Ruth

I used to believe that boneless chicken were really raised. I imagined that this kind couldn't fly as they do not have bones.

Animals

When I was young I thought birds were going to "bird school" when they sat in groups on the telephone lines. On Sundays, they were in "bird church." I still am reminded of that when I see them today, and I'm a senior citizen.

Emily

When I was little, the grocery store we shopped at had a large tree out in front, always covered with funny looking animals on the limbs. I don't know WHY, but for some reason, my Dad thought it was funny to tell me those were called "golly-whoppers". I believed him, until a friend of mine from grade school went with us one day to the store (MUCH LATER)...and I showed her the golly-whoppers! My Dad was in the car and had a great laugh. He had forgotten to tell me the truth...in fact, they were chickens.

t

My brother and I used to fight over the chicken legs whenever my mom would cook it, so she would always buy an extra package of legs when she bought a whole chicken. She and my brother had me convinced that all this had come from a six-legged racing chicken.

scheru

As a small child, i had a habit of running around naked until my Grampy would tell me that the blackbirds were on the way to come and peck "it" off!

I tell my own kids the same now!

Orbital

"dildo is an extinct bird"
my 18 year old friend fell for that.

pebblezzz