Ornithology (Birds) Part 1 Flashcards
What two characteristics are diversity related to?
Sustained flight and endothermic metabolism
What defines Passeriformes?
- 60% of all bird species
- Finches, canaries
- “Perching birds” or “Song birds”
What defines Psittaciformes?
- Stout, hooked bill
- Upper mandible is moveable
- Parrots
- Macaws
- Cockatoos
- Lories
- Parakeets
What defines Piciformes?
- Enlarged bill
- Picidae - Woodpeckers
- Ramphastidae - Toucans
- Barbets
What defines Strigiformes?
Owls
What defines Falconiformes?
Raptors
What defines Ciconiiformes?
Wading birds such as herons and cranes
What defines Galliformes?
Fowl (Poultry, pheasants)
What defines Columbiformes?
Pigeons and doves
What defines Anseriformes?
Waterfowl
What does Zygodactyl mean?
Having two toes pointed forward and two backward
What does Anisodactyl mean?
Having 3 toes facing forward and one at the back
What anatomical adaptations enable flight?
- Weight reduction
- Hollow bones
- Shortened GI tract
- No teeth
- Oviparous (lay eggs)
- Air sacs
- High metabolism
What are the two layers of skin?
Epidermis (pliable) and Dermis
What is the outermost layer of the Epidermis called, and what does it consist of?
- Stratum corneum
- Consists of flattened, keratinized cells
What is the basal layer of the Epidermis called?
Stratum germintivium
What does the dermis contain?
- Blood vessels
- Nerves
- Smooth muscle that controls feather growth and movement
Do birds have sweat glands and sebaceous glands?
No!
How do birds keep cool?
They cool themselves with gular panting/fluttering
What glands do birds have?
- Lacrimal glands (Eyelid)
- Uropygial gland (Found in most species, found at tail base, secretes oil to preen)
- Keratinocytes: produce lipids keratin. Skin is an ‘oil-producing’ gland
- Gland external ear canal
Description of claws.
- Toes, some on wings
- Pectinate middle claws
(Comb-like edges used for grooming)
What areas are featherless?
- Cere (nostrils)
- Cheek patches
- Podotheca (The non-feathered areas of the legs and feet)
What is a brood pouch?
- Females have a brood pouch for their eggs
- Direct body heat keeps them warm
What 3 types of feathers do birds have?
1) Contour (Flight and body)
2) Semiplume (Bristles/hairs)
3) Plume (Down)
What are Contour feathers and what do they look like?
- Cover the surface of the bird
- Flight feathers are long, stiff, asymmetrical
- Tail feathers - Symmetrical on both sides
- Built with durability
What are Semiplume feathers and what do they look like?
- Specialized feathers
- Mostly hidden underneath outer feathers
- Appear fluffy; great for insulation
What are Plume feathers and what do they look like?
- Down feathers
- Helps keep bird warm/thermoregulate
- Soft
What is a barb and barbule?
- The central rachis (shaft) branches into barbs and then further into barbules
- Creates a structural network that is almost weightless yet very strong
What do feathers provide?
- Provide insulation (Smooth muscle attaches to the follicles)
- Courtship
- Molting (1-2 times /year)
What is a blood feather?
- Still growing with a blood supply
- Protected by a sheath
- Damage to sheath can cause severe bleeding
Name 2 sensory organs.
- Eye
- Ear
Vision of birds.
- Excellent vision
- Different colours
What is a Sclerotic ring?
- Bones support front of the eye
- Muscle attachment
What is the Pectin?
- Vascular fringe
- Nourishes the retina
- Controls the pH of the vitreous body (Clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina)
How many eyelids do birds have?
3
- Upper
- Lower
- Nictitating (Protection)
Do birds eyes move?
No, their eyes are fixed. They rotate their head.
- Birds can also keep their eyes dilated / control the pupil when light is directed towards the eye.
How do birds hear?
- They have no pinna (external ear)
- The external canal is covered by feathers
What keeps a bird lightweight for flight?
- Reduced number of bones
- Hollow (pneumatic) bones
- Fused bones
Name the fused bones in a bird.
Pectoral girdle
- Furcula (wishbone), fused clavicles
Keel
- Sternum
Synsacrum
- Sacrum + lumbar vertebrae
Carpometacarpus
- Carpal + metacarpal
Tarsometatarsus
- Tarsal + metatarsal
What is the crop?
Storage, crop ‘milk’
What is function of the Proventriculus?
Secretes digestive enzymes and HCL
What is the function of the Gizzard or Ventriculus?
- Mechanical breakdown of food
- Thick muscular part of the stomach
- Grind rocks and grit
Function of the liver.
- Fat absorption,
- Bile salts and acids
What is the function of the Duodenum?
Enzymatic digestion and nutrient absorption
What is the function of the pancreas?
Enzyme secretion; bicarbonate; insulin/glucagon
What is the function of the Small Intestines?
Nutrient adsorption
What is the function of the Caecum?
Microbial digestion / fermentation
- Increased surface area
What is the function of the Colon?
Water and electrolyte adsorption
What is the function of the Cloaca?
- Coprodeum: feces
- Urodeum: Urinary/reproductive
- Proctodeum: Burse of fabricius and excrement (waste matter) voiding
Why is nutrition in birds so important?
- They need food with high-energy values to maintain high body temperature.
- They have limited fat storage capacity = cannot survive long without food
- Birds that eat grain need more mechanical breakdown than those that eat meat
What does the Basal Metabolic Rate (kcal/day) =
BMR (kcal/day) = BW 0.75 x 129 for passerine birds
What 3 areas are used for fat storage?
- Clavicular area
- Abdominal area
- Each side of ribs
What can Psittacines (Parrots) eat?
- Commercial pellets (80%)
- Green vegetables
- Rice
- Fruit
- Mixed seeds, nuts
- Ca supplement
- Iodine supplement for budgies
- Do not need grit
What can Anseriformes (Waterfowl) eat?
- Commercial duck pellets or poultry maintenance
- Grains
- Greens
What do Falconiformes (Birds of prey) and Strigiformes (Owls) eat?
- Whole animals
- Supplemented meat
What do Passeriformes (Song birds, Soft bills) eat?
- Mixed fruit
- Insects
- Commercial rations
What do Columbiformes (Pigeons and Doves) eat?
- Commercial pellets
- Mixed seeds
- Fruits
- Green vegetables
Respiratory System in birds.
- No diaphragm (coelom)
Trachea - Complete cartilage rings
Reduced Larynx
- Glottis protects trachea entrance
- No epiglottis
Syrinx: At base of trachea
- Sound protection
Lungs
- Do not expand during inspiration
- One-way airflow
What are air sacs? How many?
- 8-9 Air sacs
- Communicate with humerus (pneumatic bones)
- Like “bellows” push air through lungs
Most air sacs are paired (except clavicular, cervical)
How is the vertebrate respiratory system efficient?
- All air is exchanged with each breath
- 2 2 full cycles move air through
How is the Sternum involved in air flow?
The sternum is lowered to enlarge air sacs and draw air in, and then contracted to force air from sacs through the lungs
How is the rate of breathing inversely related to size?
The larger size reduces respiratory rate.
- 2-gram hummingbird breaths 143/minute
- 10 kg turkey breaths 7/minute
In flight respiratory rates increase 12-20 times resting rates.
What happens during the first inhalation?
- Air flows through the trachea and bronchi and primarily into the posterior (rear) air sacs
- On exhalation, air moves from the posterior air sacs and into the lungs
What happens during the second inhalation?
- Air moves from the lungs and into the anterior (front) air sacs
- On exhalation, air moves from the anterior air sacs back into the trachea and out
How many chambers in the heart?
Four-chambered heart
Which side does the Aorta curve to?
To the right
Efficient delivery of oxygen is essential due to?
High metabolic rate
A Renal Portal system is found in what species?
- Birds
- Amphibians
- Reptiles
- Fish
Discuss the Renal Portal System.
- Blood drains from the caudal body and passes through the kidneys
- Nephrotoxic drugs?
- Drugs cleared by the kidneys?
- Most injections will be given in the cranial part of the body
What do a bird’s erythrocytes look like?
- Nucleated
- Oval shape
- Centrally positioned nucleus
- Larger than a mammal’s RBC
What do immature erythrocytes look like?
- Rounder
- Cytoplasm is more basophilic
- Chromatin (nucleus) is more dispersed
What do a birds Thrombocytes look like?
- Nucleated (Higher nuclear : cytoplasmic ratio)
- Smaller and rounder than RBCs
What do Heterophils (neutrophils) look like?
- Round, colourless cytoplasm (Not visible)
- Eosinophilic (pink) rod shaped granules
- Toxic heterophils nuclear hypersegmentation
What do Eosinophils look like?
- Irregular with round granules
- Nuclei are lobed
- Cytoplasm is pale blue
What do basophils look like?
- Round with a round nucleus
- Nucleus is centrally located light blue
- Cytoplasmic granules stain deep purple
- Often hide the nucleus
What do lymphocytes look like?
- Round nucleus
- Cytoplasm varies; narrow band to abundant
- Cytoplasm of reactive lymphocyte is darker blue
What do Monocytes look like?
- Larger and round/irregular
- Nucleus is off centre, round or bi-lobed
What does a bird have instead of a bladder?
Urodeum of the cloaca
- No bladder
What is the Metanephric kidney?
- Adhered to the lumbosacral backbone area
- Tri-lobed: Cranial, middle, and caudal
What does a bird produce in the urogenital system?
Produce urate (uric acid)
Discuss the males Urogenital system.
- Paired testis within the coelomic cavity cranial to the kidneys
- Enlarge seasonally
- Sperm passes via vas deferens to the Urodeum
What does a female birds Urogenital system consist of?
1) Infundibulum
2) Magnum (albumen)
3) Isthmus (shell membranes)
4) Uterus (calcified shell)
5) Vagina with egg inside
How do birds mate?
- Sexual dimorphism
- Copulation in birds involves meeting of the cloaca (cloacal kissing)
- Some species possess a phallus (waterfowl, herons, flamingos, emus/ostriches)
What is the phallus and where is it found?
- Its on the ventral aspect of the Proctodeum
- Groove guides the semen into the female’s cloaca
