when i was little, my dad was driving me somewhere. along the way, i noticed alot of birds were jumping out infront of our car and flying away. I asked my dad why birds did this, and his response was that it was a game that all birds play, sort of like the game 'chicken'. if the bird made it across the street, it won. if it got hit, the bird lost the game, and died. i'm 19 now, and i still don;'t really know why birds fly infront of cars, but whenever they do, I always congradulate them.

Heather

Whenever I asked my mom how she knew I'd done somthing bad, she would say "oh a little bird told me". I believed that and was always on my best behavior whenever a bird was around.

Nancy

When I was small, I didn't know that ducks paddled their feet to swim. I thought they ran into the water and the momentun carried them across the the lake or pond. I always wandered what would happen if they ran out of momentum and got stuck in the middle of the water.

Anon

Whenever I see a helium balloon in the sky, I smile because I remember losing one when I was about three and crying and my mother calming me down by telling me that the birds would play with it until it popped. I'm 31 and still like to comfort kids with that idea when they lose a balloon.

queeneve

I loved to mix all of my food together as a kid at dinner time - I felt it was more efficient or something.

So, I thought it would be best for our parakeets as well. So I filled their clear plastic, sealed food container with birdseed, gravel and water. (Normally they would need three "dishes" for all of these - when with my system they only needed ONE!)

I came by their cage a couple days later, wondering why they never ate from the plastic feeder anymore....and I saw that grass had sprouted up in the plastic dome.

I felt awful about it...now it just makes me laugh.

Feffer

I used to think that ducks had four legs and that they tucked them under their body when they were out of the water because they didn't like the way they looked and didn't want humans to make fun of them.

Anon

My mother didn't want me picking up bird feathers in the yard, so she told me that they were covered in tiny little flesh-eating bugs.
Whenever me and my sister found a feather, we'd start screaming for somebody to come and take care of it, so the bugs wouldn't get us.

Ari

When I was smaller, about 5 or 6, I used to think that swans were ducks that had their neck streched by vandals late at night!!

Aoidhan

I used to believe that if you left any of your toys laying on the ground at night then a big bird-like monster would come and gobble them all up. It really hit me when one of my Barbie shoes went missing one night.

Kelsey

My sister and I used to try and catch the birds that landed in our backyard all the time. At one point, we thought that if we held tree branches and stood really still, that the birds would think we were trees and land on us. We soon found out that it didn't work, though.

I also tried to catch birds by digging pitfall type traps. Although I was smart kid, it never occured back then that they could easily fly out of such traps.

Toujin

My brother Adam once believed that when a person said a bird "soared" through the sky that it was "sore". One day my mother commented on an eagle that was soaring through the sky, and he got teary eyed. He felt so bad for the poor eagle for being sore.

eswaney

When me and my little sister were kids, I told her that peacocks make the sun rise and set. She believed this for years, until in she decided to stand up in class and share this fact with everyone else. We are both in our 20's, and I still make fun of her for it.

Airbo

As a child, my dad always told me that swans and ducks couldn't swim, they just walked along the bottom of the lake. How dangerous?!

Clare

Growing up, we lived across from a field and there would always be tractors tilling the soil. As the tractors would move along, flocks and flocks of seagulls would follow and try to eat whatever was being churned up. One day when I was very young, my family and I were watching this and I stated very matter of factly that "tractors make seagulls"

I thought I was so smart for figuring that out on my own.

Ashlee

My elder brother told me that seagulls were only called seagulls if they were by the sea. If they were over land they were 'landgulls'. I believed him for years and actually managed to convince loads of people that it was true!

Luce

When I was small I thought penguins could fly. It seemed very logical to me -- they had wings and they were birds! I had a whole dicussion with my grandpa about this.. I thought he was so dumb!

Lynn

i used to believe that swans were mythical creatures like unicorns or a phoenix.

amber

About six years ago I went with my family to Sea World in Orlando. We had fun walking around and whatnot. Then we went to the penguin exhibit and I saw all the little birds scurrying around and exclaimed "Look at all the baby penguins! Aren't they cute?"

My husband and son began laughing at me.

I learned that day that penguins do not, in fact, grow to be as large as people. I was 52 years old.

Mary

I used to think that chickens actually just handed over their wings for us to eat, but that the rest of the chicken was spared. I wondered why I never saw any chickens walking around without wings.

Dusty

When I was young, my grandmother use to tell me not to stick out my lip and pout because a small bird would come and take a crap on my lip!

Anon