Exploding bird

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There are theories about exploding birds. Most of them are urban legends.

Some people believe feeding birds with dry grains, such as rice, barley or wheat, the seeds would expand in volume in birds' stomachs and cause them to explode (some people throw birdseed at weddings instead due to concern about the fate of birds eating rice). This is not true. Many species eat such grains frequently; the bobolink, for example, lives primarily off rice.

To make dried seeds expand in volume, the seeds need to absorb water. Since the density of water remains more or less the same, eating small amounts of seeds would not make a wild sparrow into a stuffed turkey.

Some people believe feeding birds with Alka-Seltzer or similar products may cause the birds to explode. This is not true. Even if Alka-Seltzer releases a good amount of carbon dioxide when dissolved in water, the bird could still burp. A related common urban legend is that feeding a bird a paracetamol tablet will cause an explosion. While doing so would probably kill the bird, it would not explode.

[edit] Exploding birds in fiction

In the DreamWorks animated feature film Shrek, a bird explodes as a result of Fiona's high-pitched singing.
Monty Python's Flying Circus featured a sketch with an exploding penguin.
In the Family Guy episode, "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" (Season One, Episode Seven), a bird explodes due to intense heat.
The computer game Worms: The Director's Cut was the first in the series to feature the "Homing Pigeon", which flies around the terrain in an attempt to reach its target before exploding.
The movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge features a family's pet bird flying around insanely in the living room, attacking the family before suddenly exploding. The family credits the crazy behaviour and explosion to "intense heat from the broken heater"
On the television show "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius," Jimmy Neutron once killed a chicken-like alien organism by making it drink large amounts of soda. According to the show, the carbon dioxide released in its stomach made it explode because "chickens can't burp".
In the video game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Prinnies are a type of demonic penguin that explode when thrown.

[edit] Actual exploding birds

During spring training, in Tucson, Arizona, March 25, 2001, baseball pitcher Randy Johnson threw a fastball that struck a dove in flight, causing it to "explode" mid-air in a cloud of feathers. The video is one of the most famous and popular clips exhibited in modern sports blooper reels.

During World War II, noted American behaviorist B.F. Skinner received $25,000 in government funding for Project Pigeon, the development of a pigeon-guided missile.

A NASCAR vehicle struck a pigeon at 170 miles per hour, causing the pigeon to explode on contact.