A Japanese seabird biologist has abandoned his research project after discovering that Streaked Shearwaters are defecating frequently during flight.
Leo Uesaka’s experiment involved fixing cameras to the birds’ bellies, intending to observe their leg movements as they take off from water. However, he found an abundance of footage showing pooping in mid-air.
Further analysis of 35 hours of footage from 15 birds revealed several surprising findings: the birds poop every four to 10 minutes, on average five times per hour, losing around 5% of their body mass hourly. Each individual bird has a regular interval for pooping, and they primarily do so when flying, sometimes launching into flight solely to defecate.
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/these-seabirds-pooping-habits-shock-scientists