Someone once said that a chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg.  The opposite, is true, too. 

In zoology, an egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In mammals, the egg is a single cell with half the normal complement of chromosomes, which is fertilized and develops into a zygote.

In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing embryo can survive on its own.

Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs, with little or no other development within the mother. The study or collecting of eggs, particularly bird eggs, is called oology.

Reptile eggs, bird eggs, and monotreme eggs, which are laid out of water, are surrounded by a protective shell, either flexible or inflexible.

The 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) ostrich egg is the largest egg currently known, though the extinct Aepyornis and some dinosaurs had larger eggs. The Bee Hummingbird produces the smallest known bird egg, which weighs half of a gram. The eggs laid by some reptiles and most fish can be even smaller, and those of insects and other invertebrates can be much smaller still.

1. 1.honey buzzard
   

2. 2.falcon
   

3. 3.Eurasian sparrow-hawk
   

4. 4.blackbird
   

5. 5.thrush
   

6. 6.rook
   

7. 7.corn bunting
   

8. 8.hawfinch (or perhaps another grosbeak?)
   

9. 9.sparrow
   

10. 10.chaffinch (or other finch?)
    

11. 11.pipit
    

12. 12.reed bunting
    

13. 13.cuckoo
    

14. 14.hummingbird (?)
    

15. 15.crossbill
    

16. 16.wren
    

17. 17.nuthatch
    

18. 18.nightingale
    

19. 19.Kinglet (Goldcrest?)
    

20. 20.accentor
    

21. 21.rock bunting
    

22. 22.reed warbler
    

23. 23.sedge warbler (or other Acrocephalus?)
    

24. 24.warbler (??)
    

25. 25.tit (?)
    

26. 26.tree warbler
    

27. 27.waxwing
    

28. 28.oriole
    

29. 29.jacana
    

30. 30.grouse (?!)
    

31. 31.lagopus
    

32. 32.pheasant
    

33. 33.partridge
    

34. 34.quail
    

35. 35.avocet
    

36. 36.spotted redshank
    

37. 37.dotterel
    

38. 38.plover (??)
    

39. 39.lapwing
    

40. 40.green sandpiper
    

41. 41.tern (??)
    

42. 42.common tern
    

43. 43.tern (??)
    

44. 44.seagull
    

45. 45.loon
    

46. 46.guillemot
    

47. 47.great auk
    

48. 48.puffin
    

49. 49.grebe
    

50. 50.Emydidae (?)
    

Back to Main Eggs page

Back to Main Supplies page

Back to MAIN Pysanka home page.

Back to Pysanka Index.