Animals of the world often have varied and exotic diets. Take for instance the Giant Panda bear. Although it’s completely capable of eating meat, it survives almost solely on bamboo. Unfortunately for the Panda, its fussy diet is one of the factors leading it down the path to extinction. But there are other animals with odd diets. Perhaps the most bizarre diet that an animal can have is the consumption of blood. But a blood diet isn’t unheard of. In fact, many animals consume blood, including the subject of this fact, the vampire finch.
Vampires have had a long history as true horror monsters. Though the undead monsters of many stories such as Dracula are only fiction, some people have taken part in blood consumption. Perhaps the best known person to do such a thing was Vlad the Impaler. He was said to impale his victims and then drink their blood. Yeah, pretty gruesome hey. But vampires, or blood consumers aren’t that odd in the animal kingdom. Look at vampire bats. They are one of the best known consumers of blood among animals. There’s also the dreaded mosquito, which is the deadliest animal in the world, and leeches. Once you start to really look into it, there are many animals that survive and thrive on the blood of other animals. But birds are rare. Sure there are carnivorous birds, but they consume more than just the blood. The vampire finch is the only known fowl that lives on blood.
The vampire finch is in other words, a bird that feasts on blood for food. But unlike Vlad The Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula, they do it for survival, not enjoyment.
The vampire finch, which only inhabits Wolf and Darwin Islands in the Galapagos Islands, will land on the tails of other birds and pecks at the base of the wing feathers. Once it has created a wound it will then drink the blood from that very wound.
Tell us in the comments below what you would do if you had these birds living near you.
