Do birds have a sense of smell?

While most birds seem to lack much power of smell, there are some groups of birds that can locate food using their olfactory glands. Extensive research into bird senses has shown that vultures, seabirds, kiwis and parrots have well-developed olfactory glands, giving them some sense of smell and taste. read more

Birds depend less on the senses of smell and taste than people do. Most birds have little use for the sense of smell. The odors of food, prey, enemies or mates quickly disperse in the wind. read more

Some seabirds, like storm petrels, recognize the odor of a compound emitted by krill, their main fare. Turkey vultures track the stench of decaying flesh to ferret out the carrion they eat. Their keen sense of smell (superior to that of other vultures) has even been exploited to pinpoint leaks in oil pipelines. read more

Two nocturnal birds, kakapos and kiwis, topped the list with more than 600 smell-related genes, while canaries and blue tits had about a third as many. (Humans have about 400.) Biologists generally assume that animals with larger olfactory bulbs and more receptor genes have a stronger sense of smell. read more