birds

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

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

When I was a kid, I read in a magazine about how you could, if you were patient and gentle, get wild birds to trust you enough to eat out of your hands. It seemed extremely simple, so I was determined to get the birds near my house to trust me. I knew exactly what I would do once I gained their trust, too: I would catch all the birds in big nets and open up my own pet store, where I would become rich by selling people pet birds. Somehow, the birds never trusted me, and my business projections never got off the ground...

Not exactly Cinderella material

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

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

amber

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

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

When I was little, I believed that the chicks were still alive in the eggs you bought at the grocery store. I recently learned what an incubator was and how it works, so I thought that maybe the microwave would work as one, so I put an egg inside a bowl and started the microwave. I waited for my chick to appear until.....POP!! the egg exploded...

jamie

When I was a child I used to believe that if I told a lie a special bird would report me to my mum..so when I was telling a lie I used to look to sky and hide from that bird:))

Anon

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 when there was a bunch of birds sitting on telephone wires they were getting married and all the birds in their family were there for the wedding. I still look up at them to guess which one's are the bride and groom. I'm 18, lol.

ciana92

I have seen others that said that said that they had been told that if you put salt on a birds tail you could catch it. Apparently this was a long tradition in my family and that both my father and his father (born in 1900) had done the same. I took my turn when I was about 4/5 and my brother, who is 8 years younger did the same when he was that age.

I stood with my parents and laughed hysterically and imagined what I must have looked like to have tried that. A few minutes later though my parents got the biggest shock of their lives. After about five minutes running and shaking salt my brother returned with a bird! As my parents had promised that he could keep the bird if he caught it they had to go buy a cage and food.

We had the bird for about a year and my mom got really tired of it and decided to let it go while my brother was at school. When he came home she told him that a man had come around asking if they had any birds for sale and offered her a dollar, which she promptly gave to him. As his allowance was 5 cents a week he was thrilled.

A few minutes later he came in from the backyard with a salt shaker in one hand and a different bird in the other! My mom had to tell him that they only needed one bird and that he could not keep this one. My brother is still fantastic with animals and could probably catch a 3rd if he tried.

customdavid

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

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

I used to believe that larks were very large birds, because, whenever I heard of someone doing something "on a lark", I thought it meant they actually rode on larks to do something, so larks must have been large enough for someone to ride.

Renee

When I was about 8-10 we had chickens, and one morning we found all our chicks laying dead in their yard, soaking wet. My Mom said that they were so dumb, they looked up when raindrops hit them and drowned.

The sad thing is that I believed it until I read other similar beliefs here, tonight.. I googled it and no, they just die of being cold and wet. I'm 38. Honestly, how could wild or farmed chickens survive if they were that dumb?

The REALLY sad thing is that I've kept chickens on my own for the last five years and still believed it! I just kept the chicks in the house in a box until they were "old enough" to be out in the rain. Since it was working (they had feathers before I put them out, so weren't as susceptible to chills) I figured I was saving them from drowning. :)

SCB

My father told me that some breeds of chicken have four legs. I spent much of my childhood looking for this illusive bird every time we drove past a farm!

David - UK

now, there is an indian food item called a budgie, so when i heard someone talk about their pet budgie, i thought "what the! food for a pet?!?"

alonzo

One day when I got home from school my mom questioned me about something that had happened at school. I asked her how she knew about that. (I guess the teacher had called and told her.) She said a little birdie had told her. After that I cursed those birds that sat on the window sills at school and always folded my hands nicely and looked straight ahead whenever I saw one looking at me!

Jean

when i was about ten, i was chasing a pigeon and my dad told me it was an attack pigeon! i laughed and said that's not true. but then... the pigeon turned around and started chasing me!! to this day i am terrified of pigeons...

WHOA!