Member-only story
What to know about bird droppings!
And car damage!
I am shopping with my Grandson:
I park the car under a tree at the store & my grandson says,
“Don’t ”park here, Gram; look at all the birds in the trees. They will damage the paint of your car with their poop. Then I will need to rewash it!”
So I drive to another parking spot and say, “White poop is better than the stinky stuff other animals expel. So why is it white anyway?” I ask.
Then the teenager says,
“I learned last year in biology class that the white stuff in bird poop is uric acid — their pee. Birds lack a urinary bladder to store urine. Stored urine would weigh them down, making it difficult to fly.
The bird processes nitrogenous waste into a paste-like form of uric acid. So their urine & digestive waste mixes and is excreted together through one opening.
Often the poop, their digestive waste contains seed hulls and insect chitin which can be seen as blackish or greenish matter in their poop.
Uric acid in bird poop is corrosive and degrades the clear coat layer of an automobile. In addition, if you leave droppings on the car for too long, the acid will bleach the paint & go deeper into the metal.
