Feathers and flight Flashcards

1
Q

Feathers

A
  • Define a bird
  • Enable flight
  • Provides inshulation and may be waterproof
  • Colour and form may have sexual signals or cameoflage
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2
Q

Feather evolution

A
  • May have been evolved for insulation
  • Reptilian scales are origin
  • Longer scales trap heat for insulation or solar reflection
  • Long scales limit movement so they may be spillted to allow flexiblity
  • The result is hypersplitted pigmented scales
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3
Q

Feather types

A
  • Contour - covers the body
  • Down - insulation
  • Semi-plume/filoplume - structural support and plugs in gaps
  • Flight feathers - large, stiff and flat
  • Aula/bastard wing - used in soaring birds to prevent turbalation
  • Coveret feathers - protection and insulation
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4
Q

What is the calamus?

A

The part of the feather that attaches it to the skin

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5
Q

“Zipping up” feathers?

A
  • Vein of a feather can be broken up into strands and reattached together
  • Barbs and hooks on each strand, keeping them “zipped”
  • Called Ramus and Barbules
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6
Q

Feather tracts

A
  • Feathers aren’t randomly covered around the body
  • Lines of feathers grows out from “tracts”, overlapping each other
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7
Q

Feather growth

A
  • Chicks rapidly moult and grow feathers until they reach adult plume
  • First feathers are low quality
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8
Q

Feather maintenance

A
  • This is called Preening
  • Preening zips feather strands back up
  • Ensures coverage and overlapping
  • Some birds use an oil from a gland to waterproof feathers
  • Water and dust baths helps to remove parasites and things stuck on wings
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9
Q

Moulting

A
  • Feathers wear out
  • Feathers must be replaced regularly
  • Some birds moult yearly
  • Moulting is an expensive process
  • Starts in primaries and then secondaries
  • usually happens after breeding season
  • Gaps in wings, limit flight and movement
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10
Q

Swift moulting

A
  • They live on the wing, they have to fly so they do a bit by bit
  • Takes around 6-7 months
  • Very slow
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11
Q

Duck and geese moulting

A
  • Drop primarilies all together
  • Flightless for 4 weeks
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12
Q

Active flight requirements

A
  • Large wing surface
  • High energy
  • Very efficent oxygen transfer to muscles
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13
Q

Wing types

A
  • Long and thin - good gliders, high speed
  • Short and round - rapid takeoff, higher manoeuverblity
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14
Q

Wing tip slots

A
  • Allows greater control at low speed
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15
Q

Bird lungs

A
  • One way air flow
  • Removes 25% more oxygen per breath than humans
  • Efficency meets high oxygen demand of flight
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16
Q

Other adaptions for flight

A
  • Hollow bones
  • No teeth - light head
  • Body centre is gravity centre