BIRDS Flashcards
Birds taxonomy
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Aves
- How many orders: 40
- Families: 239
- Species: 10,500 which changes regularly
Which birds are you most likely to see in practise
- Passerines (song bird/ perching bird)
- Psittacines
- Raptors
- Poultry and waterfowl
Give examples of:
- Passerines (song bird/ perching bird)
- Psittacines
- Raptors
- Poultry and waterfowl
- Passerines (song bird/ perching bird) - finch, canarie, blue tit, robin
- Psittacines - parrot (amazon and grey), budgie, cockatiels
- Raptors - birds of prey, owls, falcons, hawks, buzzards owners often very knowledgeable
- Poultry and waterfowl - chicken, geese, pheasants, quail, swan
What are birds you might see but are more often farmed.
ostrich, rhea, emu: high protein low fat.
Large flightless birds
How many toes to passerines have
4
Orders of raptor
Accipitriformes – diurnal birds of prey: Hawks, Buzzards
o Falconiformes – diurnal birds of prey: Falcons
o Strigiformes – nocturnal birds of prey: Owls
Orders of poultry and waterfowl
- Anseriformes - ducks, geese, swans
2. Galliformes - chickens, turkeys
Difference between anseriformes and gallifrorms
A - family Anatidae
G - family phasianidae
Name of the socked bird eye fits into
sclerotic rings
Birds and blinking
- Rarely ever blink
- eyelids only closed when sleeping
- Have nictitating membrane (3rd eyelid) which functions like blinking
- No meibomium gland (harderian and lacrimal main source of tear production
- Retina doesn’t have a blood supple like mammals
Major differences in birds eye
- cornea thinner and lens softer
2. Retina thick and avascular
Bird integument
- skin is thin and inelastic, esp order strigiformes (owls)
- Reduced glands compared with mammals:
No sweat glands
No sebaceous glands
Uropygial Gland (preen) - largest on birds that require waterproofing, not present in all
Uropygial gland
- base of tail dorsum
- Variation in size, shape and number of openings
- Not present in ostrich, emu, some pigeons and some parrots
- Produced lipid rich secretion for feather waterproofing and maintenance
Name of where feather follicles are and aren’t found
- Feather follicles confined to well defined areas called pterylae
- Between these the skin has no follicles: apteriae
Anatomy of feather
- Rachis - line up middle of whole feather.
Contains capillaries during growth, becomes hollow as matures - Vane - either side of central rachis. Consists of a series of barbs with interlocking barbules to keep shape and maintain waterproofing
- Calamus - bottom of Rachis, anchors feather into follicle. HOLLOW
- Feather shaft - combination of calamus and central rachis
Different feather types
- Plumulaceous
- Pennaceous
- Contour feathers
- Semiplumes
- Down feathers
- Powder down feathers
PLUMULACEOUS
Pennaceous
Contour
- Plumulaceous - soft and downy
- Pennaceous - stiff and closely knit
- COntour - outermost feathers, give shape, colour and “contour” protect from elements
Semiplumes
Down feathers
Powder down feathers
Semiplumes - under contour feathers, loose structure, provide insulation
Down feathers - Very loose structure with no barbs, provides insulation
Powder down feathers - Specialised down feather where tips of barbules disintegrate during preening. Seen mostly in birds with reduced or absent preen gland like pigeon.
Types of contour feather
o Coverts – small contour feathers of the wing
o Remiges – large contour ‘flight feathers’ of the wing
o Retrices – ‘tail feathers’
List all the wing feathers. Bottom up, middle up, closest to body up
- Primary remiges
- Greater primary coverts
- Alula
- Secondary regimes
- Greater secondary coverts
- Median secondary coverts
- lesser secondary coverts
- tertiary regime
- Scapulares
Bird “armpit”
Axillaries!
Feather growth
- when growing - blood feathers
- Shaft blood supply
- huge blood supply
- Nerve supply
What happens if break a blood (growing) feather
bleed profusely and only way to stop is to pluck the feather and put pressure on follicle where it came from. It is very sore
Moulting. Damages feathers?
- Generally occurs once a year
2. Damaged feathers WILL NOT be replaced until next mouth BUT plucked feathers will grow back
Skeletal system function
- Support flight
- Support Egg Production
- Support respiration
How does the skeleton support flight?
- reducing weight
- fused bones
- lightweight structure
- Small skull relative to body size
- no teeth - Providing attachment points for flight muscles
- Keel (absent in flightless birds)
- Coracoid (supports wing and counteracts action of flight muscles, preventing chest compression
Spine
- flexible and lightweight
- Cervical vertebrae variable number 11-25!
- Thoracic vertebrae are all fused whihc forms the NOTARIUM
- Synsacrum
- Pygostyle
Why is the thoracic vertebrae fused?
o Notarium (fused to resist twisting forces of flight)
What are the Synsacrum and Pygostyle
- Synsacrum - Comprised of fused lumbar, sacral and some caudal vertebrae
- Pygostyle - final few caudal vertebrae. Allow attachment of tail feathers and musculature
Pneumatic bone and medullary bone
- Pneumatic - hollow, house extensions of the air sacs. Strengthened by internal struts
- Medullary - provide source of stored calcium during times of peak egg production
Forelimb
- Humerus - pneumatic bone (contains extension of cervical air sacs)
- Ulna and radius - U diameter > R
- Carpus and metacarpus fuse to form Carpometacarpus. Alula given to the first digit
- Phalanges
Hindlimb
- Pelvis - ilium, ischium and pubis
- Femur
- PAtella
- Fibula, reduced
- Tibiotarsus - fused tibia and upper tarsus
- Tarsometatarsus
- Metatatsus
- digits 4 - different anatomy depending on lifestyle
Name the diff anatomies of foot
- Anisodactyl
- Zygodactyl
- Heterodactyl
- Syndactyl
- Pamprodactyl
Pectoral girdle comprised of:
o Scapula (backwards facing!)
o Clavicle paired (fused = furcula – ‘wishbone’)
o Coracoid – helps support flights and reduce risk of compressing thoracic cavity
o Sternum
Pelvic girdle
- Innominate bone – comprises of fused ileum, ischium and pubis
- Fused dorsally with synsacrum, making a single ‘unit’
- Pelvis is one unit!
What are the main muscles involved in flight?
The large pectoral muscles
- Pectoralis major - largest = wing depressor
- Supracoracoideus (tiny muscle, 1/5th size pectoralis) = wing elevator. contraction pulls wing up
How much wing muscle mass do the main muscles of flight make up?
- 20-25%
2. Pectoralis major and Supracoracoideus
Difference in muscles of galliformes
- flight less frequently
- have more powerful leg muscles for standing and walking
- slightly reduced pectoral muscles
- Chickens
Where to inject IM?
- Use pectoral muscles, except:
- Ratites (flightless birds so under developed)
- Nestlings (young so bone still cartilage so can accidently put needle into sternum) - Can affect flight if get wrong!
Where to avoid when giving IM injection and why
- thigh/ leg muscles
- because birds have renal portal system
- blood draining from hindlimb goes straight to kidney without going through circulation first.
- So concern if inject in thigh can cause damage or drug filtered out before enters circulation.
