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What is ornithology? Ornithology is the scientific study of birds. Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. What are birds? What do birds look like? Where do birds live? How do birds move? How do birds breathe? What is the circulatory system of birds like? What do birds eat? What are the main organs of senses of birds? How do birds reproduce and develop? What are the main morphological features of birds? In which habitat do birds live? What are flight adaptations present by birds? What are pneumatic bones? How is the respiratory system of birds characterized? How is the circulatory system of birds characterized? Which is the type of nitrogen waste birds produce? Why does this feature, besides being an adaptation to the terrestrial environment, also mean an adaptation to flight? What similarities do birds and reptiles share regarding external coverage, reproduction and excretion? How do birds reproduce? Is the embryonic development in birds direct or indirect? What are the predominating chemical compounds respectively in eggshell, white and yolk? How different are reptiles and birds concerning the maintenance of body temperature? Are birds rare in polar regions? What are zoonoses? What are some examples of zoonoses transmitted by birds? Bird identity card. How are birds characterized according to examples of representing beings, basic morphology, skin, respiration, circulation, nitrogen waste, thermal control and types of reproduction? What should you at least know about a bird? What species, genus, family, order, class, phylum (division), and kingdom does this bird belong to? How do you find out the species, genus, family, order, class, phylum (division), and kingdom of a bird? What are the common and scientific names of this bird? What does this bird feed on and where does it nest? Can the bird fly? What are the most distinguishing features of this bird? Is this bird male or female? Is this bird utilized for human food? What types of birds are utilized by humans for food? Why do humans consume only specific kinds of birds? What birds are important to humans? Chickens. Why are chickens important to humans? They provide eggs and meat for food. Chicken meat is a good source of consumable protein that prevents protein energy malnutrition in human. What is the heaviest reported chicken? Does this type of chicken get similar heavy subsequent breeds? What is the largest reported chicken egg? Do such hens lay similar eggs and hatch similar chicks? What are the names of ten birds that cannot fly? What is the smallest bird, largest bird, fastest bird, and slowest bird? What is the scientific classification of birds? What is the scientific classification of chicken? |
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What are birds?
The class Aves places second in the number of species among vertebrates. There are approximately 8,600 species of birds in the world. It is estimated that the there are 100 billion birds in all. 1. Birds are endothermic vertebrates. 2. Their skin is covered with feathers. 3. They have four-chambered hearts. 4. Their bones are lightweight and usually hollow. 5. Their forelimbs are modified as wings. 6. They lay eggs. What do birds look like? Birds have an exceptional streamlined body that is covered by feathers. A lot of birds have very colourful feathers, the others are hardly noticeable in the nature due to their modest appearance. Front limbs are modified into wings. Apart from a few exceptions, all birds can fly. Hind limbs have four toes in most cases. Jaws are covered by a horny beak. Weight varies greatly. The ostrich is the largest among birds (weighs up to 150 kg), the hummingbird is the tiniest bird (weighs from 1.6 g). Where do birds live? Birds live in diverse habitats: deserts, mountains, forests, tundras, near the bodies of water, etc. How do birds move? Most birds can fly by means of feathered wings. Powerful breast muscles move wings. Tail helps birds direct the flight. Birds' light rigid skeleton and fast digestion favours flying. Hind limbs - legs - are for walking on land. Water birds have webbed-swimming feet. Several birds can swim, walk and fly but most of them are still best adapted for one or two of these. How do birds breathe? Birds' loss of energy is enormous in flying and it requires a great amount of oxygen for the organism of the bird. Therefore birds have special organs - air sacs - in addition to lungs. Air always passes through lungs in one direction, it enables maximum oxygenation of the blood. What is the circulatory system of birds like? Birds have four-chambered heart. Thus the systemic circulation and pulmonary circulation are completely separate, consequently arterial and venous blood cannot get mixed. This is one of the reasons why birds are warm-blooded, i.e. their body temperature does not depend on the temperature of the environment. Birds' average body temperature is 41 - 42 °C . What do birds eat? Birds have diverse diets: they eat both plants and animals from air, water, or land. Birds have no teeth - food moves into two-chambered stomach. In the first chamber food is mixed with digestive enzymes, the second chamber is the gizzard functioning as a substitute for teeth. Birds must eat large quantities of food to generate the energy needed for both flight and temperature regulation especially in winter and during migration. Some small birds have to eat larger quantities of food daily than their own weight. What are the main organs of senses of birds? The organs of senses are unevenly developed. They depend more on their vision than any other sense. Birds have keen senses of vision and hearing but poor senses of smell and taste. The majority of birds does not distinguish smells. How do birds reproduce and develop? All birds are bisexual, fertilization is internal. Most birds build nests. These are diverse and are situated either on land, in trees, in hollows of trees, in burrows, or on the sides of cliffs, etc. A lot of birds begin nesting with complicated rituals - courtship. Males and females of most bird species form pair bonds - i.e., they stay with one another throughout the reproductive season. Laying eggs is followed by incubating and hatching. Young hatchlings are capable to follow their mother almost immediately after having been hatched in case of several bird species. Songbirds and most sea birds have altricial young - i.e., the newly hatched birds are blind, naked, and helpless and must remain in the nest for a time because they require constant feeding and care. Most our birds nest only once a year but there are species that can nest up to three times a summer in case of favourable weather conditions. Next to mammals, birds are the most useful to man. There are thousands of different kinds of birds. They vary in size from the tiny hummingbird to the large ostrich. * A bird is an animal with feathers. * Birds have two legs and two wings. * Birds have a beak or a bill. * They lay eggs. The young hatch from the eggs. * They are warm-blooded. Birds breathe faster than mammals and their bodies are warmer. Only mammals and birds are warm-blooded. * Remember:Bats have wings, but they are not birds. * A turtle lays eggs, but it is not a bird. * The ostrich, emu and penguin are birds but they do not fly. * Birds give us meat and eggs. (chicken, turkey, duck, goose) * Some birds make good pets. (parrot, canary, pigeon, cockatoo) * Some birds eat harmful insects. * Birds of Prey eat mice, rats, voles and other animals that destroy farmers' crops. * Birds have hollow bones filled with air. * There are birds that migrate. They fly south in the fall to escape the cold winters. Then they fly north in the spring to their nesting grounds. GROUPING BIRDS * Birds can be grouped by where they live - land birds, water birds, Arctic birds, tropical birds. * Birds can be grouped by what they eat - birds that eat insects, birds that eat fruits and seeds, birds that eat meat and fish. * Birds can also be grouped according to the shape of their feet, beaks or wings. Birds are mostly feathers and feathers do not weigh much. Birds have wings to help them fly. They have strong muscles to be able to fly for long periods of time. KINDS OF WINGS and WAYS THAT BIRDS FLY Not all birds' wings are the same. Not all birds fly in the same way. Birds soar, glide, flap their wings quickly, hover and dive. Birds that have long, pointed wings (like the gull) or broad wings (like the eagle ) are able to SOAR . They can ride the updrafts of air. The wings of pigeons, ducks, and other water birds are called general-purpose wings. They just keep FLAPPING their wings in order to stay in the air. The hummingbirds wings beat so quickly that they look like a blur. The hummingbird is able to HOVER (fly in one place) while it sips nectar from flowers. It can even fly backwards. The loon is not a good flier. Its wings are useful for DIVING under the water. In order to fly, the loon must flap its narrow wings long and hard to lift its heavy body out of the water. Class Aves - Q&A Review 1. What are the main morphological features of birds? Birds are animals that present aerodynamic bodies covered with feathers, anterior limbs transformed into wings, pneumatic bones and horny (corneous) beaks. Image Diversity: birds avian body structure 2. In which habitat do birds live? Birds are terrestrial animals but the majority of species also explore the aerial environment by flying. 3. What are flight adaptations present by birds? Wings associated to a well-developed pectoral musculature, pneumatic bones, less accumulation of feces in the bowels due to the absence of the colon, absence of the bladder (no urine storage), aerodynamic body and lungs with specialized air sacs are all adaptations which enable birds to fly. 4. What are pneumatic bones? Birds have lightweighted bones with internal spaces filled with air. These bones are called pneumatic bones. This feature reduces the corporal density of the animal facilitating the flight. Image Diversity: pneumatic bones 5. How is the respiratory system of birds characterized? Like reptiles and mammals, they make gas exchange through lungs. 6. How is the circulatory system of birds characterized? Birds, like every vertebrate, have a closed circulatory system. The heart is similar to the mammalian heart, having four chambers (two atria and two ventricles) and with no mixture of venous and arterial blood. (In mammals, however, the aorta curves down to the left and in birds it curves down to the right). Image Diversity: avian heart 7. Which is the type of nitrogen waste birds produce? Why does this feature, besides being an adaptation to the terrestrial environment, also mean an adaptation to flight? Birds are uricotelic, i.e., like reptiles, they excrete uric acid. This substance needs less water to be eliminated and so it helps to reduce the body weight thus aiding in flight. 8. What similarities do birds and reptiles share regarding external coverage, reproduction and excretion? Regarding external coverage, birds are similar to reptiles as they present impermeable keratinized coverages. Concerning reproduction, in both fecundation is internal and the embryo develops within a shelled egg. Regarding excretion, both excrete uric acid. 9. How do birds reproduce? Birds, like every vertebrate, have sexual reproduction. Their embryos develop within shelled eggs containing extraembryonic membranes and outside the mother’s body. Birds copulate. Fecundation is internal and it occurs only before the female gamete is involved by the calcareous eggshell. 10. Is the embryonic development in birds direct or indirect? The embryonic development is direct, there is no larval stage. 11. What are the predominating chemical compounds respectively in eggshell, white and yolk? The eggshell is basically made of calcium carbonate. The white, or albumen, is composed by albumin, a protein. The yolk is predominantly constituted of lipids but it also contains proteins and vitamins. Image Diversity: avian egg 12. How different are reptiles and birds concerning the maintenance of body temperature? Are birds rare in polar regions? Reptiles are heterothermic, i.e., they do not control their body temperature. Birds however are the first homeothermic animals, they are able to maintain their body temperature constant. There are many birds that live in intense cold regions. Penguins are examples of birds that live in polar region. 13. What are zoonoses? What are some examples of zoonoses transmitted by birds? Zoonoses are human diseases transmitted by animals. Psittacosis, a bacterial disease, hystoplasmosis and cryptococcosis, fungal diseases, are examples of zoonoses transmitted by birds. 14. Bird identity card. How are birds characterized according to examples of representing beings, basic morphology, skin, respiration, circulation, nitrogen waste, thermal control and types of reproduction? Examples of representing beings: chickens, sparrows, parrots, ostriches, penguins. Basic morphology: aerodynamic body, feathers, pneumatic bones, horny beaks. Skin: impermeable keratinized, feathers, uropygial gland. Respiration: pulmonary. Circulation: closed and complete, heart with four chambers. Nitrogen waste: uric acid. Thermal control: homeothermic. Types of reproduction: sexual, internal fecundation, shelled eggs with extraembryonic membranes. Chicken Life Span The life span of a chicken varies between 5 - 7 years although there have been cases of chickens living 20 years or so. Chickens (Gallus domesticus) are domestic birds that cannot fly. There are over 150 different breeds of chicken that come in various colors, patterns and sizes. With a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other bird. Chickens provide two sources of food frequently consumed by humans: their meat, also known as chicken, and eggs which they lay. Chickens have a great usefulness to humans. Chickens can be kept as pets, for breeding, egg laying and a food product. There are many different breeds that come in a variety of colors. A female chicken is called a 'hen'. A male chicken is called a 'rooster'. Young chickens are called 'chicks' or 'poults'. A group of chickens is called a 'flock'. Roosters can usually be differentiated from hens by their striking plumage, marked by long flowing tails and bright pointed feathers on their necks. The rooster is larger and more brightly coloured than the hen, he also has a larger comb on top of his head. Roosters make a very loud crowing sound usually very early in the morning but they can crow anytime of the day. Their loud shrill is a territorial sign to other roosters. They can also be quite aggressive birds. Hens lay eggs that range in colour from white to pale brown and other pale colours depending on the breed. The Classification of Birds: Birds belong to the biological class Aves and live virtually everywhere on Earth. Birds are amniotes, animals whose eggs are protected from drying out (a group that includes the mammals, birds, dinosaurs, and reptiles). There are about 9,000 different species of birds, divided into 24 orders and 146 Families. Most birds alive today are Neognathae (a group distinguished by common palate structure). Another, much smaller group, is the Palaeognathae (again grouped by palate structure), which includes the ostrich, kiwi, emu, rhea, and others. What does an ornithologist do? Ornithologists specialize in identifying and classifying many different bird species. They study the biology, physiology, behavior, ecology, and environment of birds. Some focus their studies on the instinct and learning abilities of specific species and others are concerned with conservation and ecosystem development. Many ornithologists use mass spectroscopy to determine where migratory birds originate. Some ornithologists travel to a variety of different locations to conduct studies on many different types of birds that are unique to specific areas. Many ornithologists work with other professionals and incorporate their studies into other disciplines. Ornithologists often work at zoos, universities, laboratories, scientific preserves, and research facilities. What kind of training does an ornithologist need? Ornithologists typically need at least a bachelor degree in ornithology, zoology, or other related field. Many ornithologists have a master or doctoral degree. Prospective ornithologists typically complete courses in wildlife biology, ecology, anatomy, evolution, and statistics. Many ornithologists complete internships or obtain part-time jobs as assistants at zoos, museums, or other facilities to gain practical experience in the field. Many ornithologists join professional organizations such as the Wilson Ornithological Society or the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) to remain competitive in the field. Ornithologists often complete continuing education and additional training throughout their careers to keep their skills up to date and keep up to date with advancements in the field. What are the prospects for a career as an ornithologist? http://www.birdsinfocus.com/species_list.php?region=ABA http://bio.edu.ee/animals/Linnud/lialgus.htm http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/avibase.jsp?lang=EN&pg=home http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1189 |