Buzz
Throwing rice at newlyweds has been a time-honored tradition for centuries, possibly dating back to ancient Assyrian and Egyptian cultures. The gesture symbolizes good fortune, fertility, and prosperity for the couple. In recent years, however, some critics have warned against tossing rice, claiming that birds who consume it after the celebration might be harmed. The rice, being absorbent, allegedly draws moisture from the birds' digestive systems, causing them to burst.
The origin of this idea is unclear, but it gained widespread attention in the late 1980s when the Connecticut state legislature debated a bill that would prohibit rice throwing at weddings, and advice columnist Ann Landers published a letter discussing the issue.
No need to worry about the birds anymore—this myth is not something you need to fret about.
The truth is that rice is harmless to birds. Wild birds often consume uncooked rice without any negative effects. Many species of waterfowl, shorebirds, and migratory birds rely on flooded rice fields to store fat for the winter. One such bird, the bobolink, consumes so much rice that it's considered a nuisance by farmers and is commonly referred to as the "ricebird."
In addition to the many birds that eat rice without any issues, another important point is that dried rice grains don't absorb liquid very quickly unless it's boiling hot—much hotter than the temperature of a bird's stomach. Birds’ body temperatures typically range from 100.4 to 107.6 degrees F, which is far below the boiling point of any liquid they might ingest. Even if birds did have boiling insides, any rice they consumed would be sufficiently broken down by their crops and gizzards, preventing any problems as it expands.
Mythbusters or Gutbusters?
The reasons rice doesn't harm birds are based on our understanding of both bird biology and rice. While both are fairly well-known, wouldn’t a solid experiment be a great way to finally put this myth to rest?
That’s exactly what James Krupa and his students at the University of Kentucky decided to do. In the spring of 2002, Krupa and his 600 biology students set out to test the exploding bird myth with a series of experiments. They examined the expansion of various grains, studied the strength of birds’ digestive systems, and even tested an all-rice diet on the professor’s pet birds.
The first notable discovery was that white rice swelled by 33% when soaked, while bird seed expanded by 40%. If rice were truly capable of causing birds to explode, we’d have already doomed them with the birdfeeders full of seed. The greatest expansion occurred with white and brown instant rice, which increased 2.4 to 2.7 times its original size when soaked. Of course, instant rice tends to be more expensive and comes in smaller quantities, so it's unlikely that anyone would be tossing around open packages of Uncle Ben’s at weddings.
But what if they did? To determine if instant rice could cause a bird to burst from within, Krupa and his students created model bird crops using thin plastic and wet paper bags, filling them with different grains and water. None of the plastic crops exploded, but a paper bag filled with instant white rice expanded and ruptured in about 15 minutes.
Not content with their bird-gut replicas, the students convinced Krupa to test the rice on real birds. Confident that no birds would be harmed based on their earlier findings, Krupa agreed to use the doves and pigeons he kept at home as test subjects. He fed 60 of his birds nothing but instant rice and water for a day and watched closely for any signs of distress. Krupa reported that no birds choked, exploded, or suffered injury or death. None of them vomited or appeared in pain; they went through their rice-only day without issue.
It appears that birds have no trouble with rice, but this doesn’t mean it’s entirely safe to throw at weddings. Hard, tubular grains scattered on the sidewalk outside a church can create a slipping hazard for another type of animal: wedding guests. The risk of slip-and-fall accidents and the potential lawsuits that follow have led some wedding venues to ban rice—not because of the birds, but to avoid legal trouble.
