The Birds Galleries
The museum’s Birds Galleries have birds from all over the world. There is a lot to discover here - everything from the world’s largest bird, the ostrich, down to the smallest one, the humming bird.
If you wish to admire the world’s toughest father, you will find him here as well. It is the emperor penguin. In the middle of the Antarctic winter, with powerful winds spinning around, and temperatures around -40 C, he incubates the egg which the female has left in his care before heading out to sea to feed. She has to do this because she has used up her strength to create the egg. She returns after two months to her tiny family with food for the little one.
Penguins cannot fly, but their closest relatives, albatrosses, have amazing flying skills. Albatrosses are some of the world’s largest flying birds and spend almost all their life in the air. On their narrow wings they soar over the ocean – males and females flying in separate groups. The couples meet only every second year in order to mate. Just lift your head up to look at the showcase, and you can admire the enormous wingspan of the wandering albatross.
From swifts to golden eagles
There are much smaller birds which spend large amounts of time in the air, where they even sleep. Our own swift is one such example. It can’t fly from the ground, which is why it incubates on cliffs and precipices, under roofing tiles and other places where it can throw itself into the air from a great height. Check out the dioramas to see what the Swedish birds’ nests look like.
You will also find here a large nest of the powerful golden eagle. A golden eagle couple have several nests in their territory which they will switch between during the years. They repair their nests and build on to them, so that in the end a nest can weigh one tonne. Only very thick, old trees can support such constructions. Since nowadays really large trees can only be found in forests which are protected from logging, eagles and many other bird species are facing a housing shortage.
