Rice and Birds

[Cendari]

This is what I have known for years, but people swore it was true and I couldn't tell them otherwise. Even if those same people had never seen a bird explode, it was always a friend of a friend who supposedly saw one explode.

Consider this urban legend busted.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/riceatweddings.htm

Throwing Rice at Weddings Causes Harm To Birds-Fiction!

"Fiction:

The old tradition of throwing rice at a departing wedding couple should be avoided because birds eat the rice, it expands in their stomachs, and they are harmed by it. Some folks say the birds can even explode!

The Truth:

The consensus of the multiple organizations we checked with is that this is Fiction! It's an urban legend that some say got started, or at least propelled, when Ann Landers gave advice in her column in the mid-sixties that the rice would do bad things to birds.

The folks at Birder's magazine, Birdwatcher Digest, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the USA Rice Federation all agree: rice causes no harm to birds. There are varieties of birds that routinely eat rice in the wild and with no harm. As one observer put it, if rice caused birds to explode, there would be bird parts all over Asia.

Most of the wedding planning organizations say that the main reason for not using rice is because there is too much of a risk of people slipping on it and falling."

Edited July 18, 2005 by Cendari

[nightmare_girl]

I've heard that before. People are so gullible I've fed rice to birds, and none of them went 'Boom!'...

[Neo2005]

Untill a few weeks ago i acually thought this was true.

[JohnnyBoyC]

lol i heard the alka selter in bread one. I won't try it becuase I am considered a terrorist or torturer for killing a slug, so imagine I fi made a thread entitled:

Birds Explode when you feed alkaselter

I tried it 5 minutes ago

EDIT: ACCIDENTILLY CLICKED QUOTE IN ANOTHER THREAD, I REMOVED IT

Edited July 18, 2005 by JohnnyBoyC

[Jeenuh]

Lol, wow my dad knows something I didn't for once, we were at the Queen Mary park thing and there was a peigon eating a bunch of rice and I was just watching it like "oh god. :X"

[Apocalyptic Cryptid]

Well i had never heard that they would LITERALLY EXPLODE. i had just heard that it could expand in there stomach causing sickness maybe death... but i thought that was weird.. i mean people eat rice.. and MOST dont get sick.....

[kourui]

exploding birds...wow!

[piercing_maniac]

I always feed rice to birds and i have never witnessed one combusting!

[Falco Rex]

I really have no idea how this one could have got started..Since everyone who's ever used a stove knows that rice only really swells when you add water and cook it. No bird I'm aware of has a stomach with a temperature of several hundred degrees or contains a large amount of water..

It should have been fairly obvious from the start this was just a myth..

[ROGER]

This story was probably started by the soap Company that sells thous little bottles of Bubble Makers they hand out at weddings. the kids like them.

[Great Big Sea]

I've heard of this one before but I never really payed much attention to it.

[JennRose]

So does the alkaseltzer thing work? I heard it worked for rats, too, bc they can't burp.

Weird!

[343 Guilty Spark]

Has anyone seen when a bird crashes into a window it leaves an imprint made of the dirt and dust on their feathers.

[343 Guilty Spark]

Has anyone seen when a bird crashes into a window it leaves an imprint made of the dirt and dust on their feathers.

EDIT: Sorry I pressed the button twice.

Edited August 1, 2005 by 343 Guilty Spark

[Broken Episode]

I'd really like to see a bird explode, like a big fat pigeon, BOOM.