How can birds walk around or stand in the icy cold water?
It is amazingly simple. The blood vessels in the legs and feet of birds are very close together. As the warm blood is being pumped from the heart to the legs and feet, it literally warms the cold blood that is coming back up to the heart. This keeps the birds from “dying of cold shock”. As long as the bird is able to find food and convert that food to “heat” energy, it can survive in extremely cold conditions. For more about winter survival, see this issue’s cover article.
