Billy Gilbert, age 8 of Philadelphia, Penna., for his question:

Where are my parakeets ears ?

It’s plain enough that your parakeet can hear. He listens and cocks his head when you speak to him. He may even try to copy you and say a word or two himself right back at you. But, it is true that he has no ears that show.

However, he does have ears.  Being a bird, he has bird ears. Maybe you thought your ears were those flaps on the side of your head. As a matter of fact they are only a part, the outer part, of your ears. The real hearing job is done by very complicated organ inside your head, called the inner ears.

Your parakeet has inner ears covered over by skin and a layer of those soft feathers which you know so well. His ears are just about where you would expect them to be. But you cannot see them because they are all covered over with skin and feathers.