Experiments suggest this is going on within single molecules in birds' eyes, and John Morton of University College London explained that the way birds sense it could be stranger still.

BBC: Perfume chemist

It says that the freeze could be the single biggest killer of birds since the Arctic snap of the early 1960s and has asked the public to help feed them.

BBC: Cold fuel payment increase urged

How is it that a three-year old knows how to play Angry Birds without needing a single adult to teach them?

FORBES: How Gamification Kills Classroom Training

How did Angry Birds go viral despite being a single player game?

FORBES: Why Is Canada Such A Good Testing Ground For Game Releases?

Others birds, such as herons, storks, ducks and many others also often stand on a single leg in water, perhaps for the same reasons as flamingoes.

BBC: Earth News - Why flamingoes stand on one leg