If you have been thinking the reason why bird poop is hard to remove from buildings and other surfaces is because of uric acid being a prime ingredient, the answer is no.

According to Nick Crouch, a scientist at The University of Texas at Austin, there is no uric acid in excreted bird urine. For the unversed, birds release both solid and liquid discharge at the same time out of which the white substance is urine.

"It was easy to tell that what we had and that it was not uric acid," confirmed Crouch in a statement published in the Journal of Ornithology, after examining the excretions of six different bird species.

After a discussion in 2018 with late Jackson School Professor Bob Folk, who stated that bird waste did not contain uric acid, Crouch decided to explore the issue himself.

Based on findings from other research, he added that the substances are most likely the result of bacteria breaking down uric acid inside the birds gut before it is discharged.

Sushma Reddy, Associate Professor and Chair of Ornithology at the University of Minnesota in "Breckenridge said she was surprised by the findings of the research and thought they would stimulate more research into bird physiology.

She added, "It goes against the old doctrine that we learn. It's pretty incredible that we live in this time where we can reanalyze with incredible technologies these things that we took for granted."

"I had no idea I was going to work on bird pee," said Crouch. “But I find myself with so many new questions about the avian micro biome, which shows how our research can take us in unexpected and exciting directions."

Crouch concluded that this research gives way to more unanswered questions like identifying the unknown substance or deciphering the power if bird microbiome.

Birds sleep mid-flight
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany found that some birds can sleep mid-flight. AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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