Exotics - birds Flashcards
What characteristics do birds and reptiles share?
Scales on beak legs and feet
Single occipital condyle
Single middle ear bone
Jaw bone made up of 5 fused bones
What are the red features of the head?
Comb, wattles and ear lobe
What are the comb and wattles made up of and what for?
Thickened dermis forming vascularised structures that aid with heat loss
What feature on the head can be used for sex/ age determination?
Cere
What type of feet do chickens have?
Anisodactyl - first digit points caudally, others point forwards
What type of feet do parrots have?
Zygodactyl - digits 2 and 3 point forwards, 1 and 4 point backwards
What is the name for webbed feet?
Palmate
What is the beak made up of?
Horny keratinised epithelium, vascular dermis then bone
What is the keratin layer of the beak called? Upper and lower beak?
Rhampotheca
Rhinotheca - upper
Gnathotheca - lower
How are waterfowls tongues adapted?
Lateral side of tongue has bristles, act as a filter system for food particles
What is blinking mainly done by in birds?
The nictitating membrane - third eyelid
What part of the skull is very big in birds?
Optic lobe - rostral colliculus
What is different about bird irises?
Made of striated muscle - can voluntarily retract pupil
Usually dark except in some eg. owls where get paler during breeding season
What reflex do birds not have to do with vision?
No consensual light reflex - pupils dont constrict at the same time
Why dont birds have the consensual light reflex?
Complete decussation of the optic nerves
What is the vascular structure that nourishes the eye called?
Pectan
What are the different types of eyes?
Flat
Globular
Tubular - nocturnal, very good visual acuity
What are the wing/flight feathers called?
Remiges
What are the primary remiges attached to?
Everything distal to the carpus
What are the secondary remiges attached to?
The ulna
What are the little feathers which cover the body called?
Coverts
WHat are the tail feathers called?
Rectrices
What do the rectrices attach to?
Pygostyle
What is the pygostyle?
Fusion of the caudal vertebrae
What are the scales on a birds feet called?
Podotheca
What are hairless feather tracts called?
Pterylae
What is the name of the leading edge of the wing?
Propertagium
patagia - fold of skin
What is used for venepuncture in a bird?
Deep ulnar vein
Right jugular vein
Medial metatarsal vein
What is the name for the gland that aids with waterproofing and feather condition? Where is it found?
Uropygial gland - above tail feathers
What occurs in prokinesis?
Depression of the mandible leads to elevation of the maxilla at the craniofacial hinge joint
What bones are responsible for prokinesis?
Articular bone - rotating
Quadrate bone - articular bone presses against it and in turn it presses against the paletine bone, lifting hte maxilla
How many cervical vertebrae do birds have?
14
What are the fused thoracic vertebrae called?
Notarium
What is the fusion of the lumbar and sacral vertebrae with the pelvis called?
Synsacrum
What are the fused clavicles/wishbone called?
Furcola
What does the notarium have which can be a problem?
Free synovial joint which can slip and compress spinal cord - ankylosing spondylolisthesis
What does the furcola do?
Opens during downbeat
Elastic energy is used to aid with the upbeat
What is a feature of the humerus?
Pneumatised - clavicular air sacs extend into it
What does the coracoid bone attach to in birds?
The sternum
What are the two flight muscles?
Supracoracoideus
Pectorals
What is the function of the supracoracoideus?
Responsible for the upbeat
Where does the supracoracoideus attach to and how?
Dorsal part of the humerous - through the Triosseal canal
What is different about diving birds skulls?
Small neres/nostrils
What are the internal nares called in a bird?
Choanae
What does the choanae sit on top of in birds?
The glottis - opening to trachea
What does the trachea end in in birds?
Syrinx - larynx equivalent
What are features of the sturnum?
Long
coils at sturnum
Complete interlocking rings
High deadspace
What are the vocal cord equivalent called in birds?
Tympaniform membranes
What are used to manipiulate the tympaniform membranes?
5 pairs of syringeal muscles
What is the enlargement of the syrinx called? What does it do?
Osseus bulla
Increases the resonance to create a different call
What are the different sections of bird lungs?
Primary bronchi
Mesobronchi
Parabronchi
What are bird lungs made up of?
Firm spongy tissue
No alveoli
What is airflow categorised as in birds?
Bidirectional
How does the air sac system work in birds?
2 cycles of inspiration and expiration for a bolus of air to go all the way through
Only one way through the parabronchi/lungs
Insp - caudal air sacs
Exp - parabronchi
Insp - cranial air sacs
Exp - out again
What is a feature of the oesophagus?
Crop
Oesophagus deviates to the right
What are the two sections of the stomach called and what are they made up of?
Proventriculus - glandular stomach
Ventriculus - muscular gizzard
What is the crop for?
Temporary food storage
Crop milk to feed young
What is the gizzard for?
Grinding up food - replaces teeth
Contains small bits of grit
How many lobes does a bird liver have?
2 - left and right
Where is the pancreas located in birds?
Between a double loop of duodenum
What kind of caecum do granivorous birds have?
Paired caeca
Where is the caeca located in birds?
Arise at junction of ileum and colorectum
What is the part of the cloaca where faeces are excreted?
Coprodeum
How do birds mate?
Cloacal kissing
What birds have a phallus?
Ducks, swans and geese
What shape is the phallus?
Corkscrew
Where is the ovum fertilised?
Oviduct
What is the area that adds the ‘egg white’ and what is the egg white called?
Magnum
Albumin
Where is the shell added?
Shell gland - uterus
What is the part of the oviduct that is after the magnum?
Isthmus
What is the structure of a birds kidney?
Only a few loops of henle - between a mammal and a reptile
How is salt removed from a sea birds blood stream?
Salt glands in nose
