RE: The Right-to-Left Shunt of Crocodilians Serves Digestion

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008, Hope, Sylvia wrote:

> Birds lost it right about the time the first bird got up and tried to fly off
> on a full stomach.

Well, this apparently does happen ;)   but the examples I foud were for
eagles

http://www.pbase.com/joshuacripps/image/82053102
2-year-old bald eagle. Too gorged on food to fly away from us or the 
badgers that kept pestering him

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010112/ai_n9665386
Jan 12, 2001
A GOLDEN eagle that gorged itself so much on a kill it could not fly is on 
a diet after a guide found it waddling towards its mountain home in Volda, 
north of Oslo, Norway. It will be freed when it has digested the meal.



http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=491366
Sat Jan 12 2008 06:40 PM Bald Eagle deaths
At Least 19 Bald Eagles Die in Alaska

KODIAK, Alaska (Jan. 12) - At least 19 bald eagles died Friday after 
gorging themselves on a truck full of fish waste outside a processing 
plant.

At least 50 bald eagles gorged themselves on fish waste they found in a 
truck parked outside a processing plant in Alaska. They became too wet and 
slimy to fly or clean themselves, and suffered when temperatures dipped 
into the teens. At least 19 of them died Friday. Above, some of the 
survivors await rescue.
...


http://books.google.com/books?id=JC3QD47hu24C&pg=PA329&lpg=PA329&dq=eagle+gorged+fly&source=web&ots=zwAMOM0NiL&sig=nG9PBMa_aUQGl8hNizm6qH83Qvk
Eagle feathers are in great demand, and the hunter is always on the 
lookout for an eagle which has so gorged itself that it is almost helpless


This link
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v018n05/p0200-p0201.html
relates anecdotal tales of eagles too full to fly.

> > Birds have lost the shunt capability present in crocodiles and reptiles
>
> - SH.