- Bird louse
Bird louse refers to any
chewing louse (paraphyletic suborder Mallophaga) which parasitizesbird s. Recent reclassification has found that bird lice belong to two suborders,Amblycera andIschnocera , although some members of these suborders do not parasitize birds and are therefore not bird lice.Bird lice may feed on
feather s,skin , orblood , but usually do not cause much harm to a bird unless it is unusually infested. It is believed that all bird species have lice at least occasionally; some species are remarkably free ofectoparasite sFact|date=February 2007 while others have been observed to utilize plants with known insecticidal propertiesFact|date=February 2007.References
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9015351?query=Bird%20Louse&ct= "Bird louse"] .
Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved July 28, 2005.
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