Modern Birds

 The other remaining Archosaurs are birds

given their own class Aves by traditional
taxonomists.

 There are approximately 8,600 species of

birds ranging is size from the tiny bee
hummingbird to the ostrich.
Bee hummingbird http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/
images/pho/t172/T172726A.jpg

http://www.hedweb.com/animimag/ostrich-hotlinks.jpg
 Characteristics of the birds
 Feathers a unique character among living
animals, but also found in dinosaurs.
 Endothermic
 Skeleton modified for flight. Bones hollow,
forelimbs support the wing, ribs with uncinate
processes, beak but no teeth, reduced tail.
 Breathing by lungs and associated air sacs
 Internal fertilization and hard-shelled amniotic
egg
 Evolution of birds
 Birds evolved from a group of theropod
dinosaurs in the Jurassic period. The oldest
known bird fossil is Archaeopteryx lithographica
which has a mix of “reptilian” and avian features.

 Reptilian: long tail, teeth, long clawed fingers

 Avian: feathers, ribs with uncinate processes,

avian shoulder girdle.
Archaeopteryx
(oldest known
fossil bird)
Jurassic
150mya

Size:
Large chicken
 Feathers
 Among living animals feathers are a
uniquely avian trait.

 However, it is now well established that

feathers also occurred in dinosaurs. In the
1990’s feathers were described from
series of non-avian coelurosaurs, mostly
from the Chinese Liaoning deposits.
 Feathers
 Feathers are what enable birds to fly, but
originally are believed to have evolved as
a thermoregulatory device.

 Feathers are lightweight, but strong. The

surface of the feather is made up of tightly
spaced, overlapping filaments that hook
together. Overlapping feathers form the
wings with which birds fly.
Dinosaur feather impressions
 Feather structure
 Feathers are made of keratin: an inert
substance that consists of insoluble
microscopic filaments embedded in a
protein matrix.
 Keratin is the substance found in hair,
nails, claws and scales of other animals,
but bird keratin is unique and differs from
that of modern reptiles.
 Feathers
 There are two main categories of feathers
 Plumaceous – downy for insulation
 Pennaceous – linked , vaned feathers wing and
contour feathers.

 Vane of a typical body feather consists of a

hidden downy base (for insulation) and an
exposed cohesive outer portion (for
streamlining).
Downy Feather
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/33309716_ad54e344dd.jpg?v=0
 Feathers
 Body feathers of most birds include an
aftershaft that emerges from the underside
of the shaft where the first basal barbs of
the vane branch off.

 The aftershaft is almost always downy and

functions to increase insulation. In
ptarmigan winter plumage the aftershaft is
¾ as long as the main feather.
Aftershaft
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/pics/cp/feather-e.gif

Ptarmigan:
http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/images/Portraits/Ptarmigan.jpg
 Feather structure
 A contour feather has a long central shaft and a broad flat
vane. The hollow base of the shaft (quill) anchors the
feather in a follicle under the surface of the skin.

 The rest of the shaft, the rachis, supports the vanes.

Branching off from the rachis are barbs. Each barb has
barbules projecting to either side that interlock with the
barbules of adjacent barbs.

 Barbs and barbules form an interlocking, but flexible

surface.

 http://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/bird-feathers.html
Figure 27.05e

19.4
 Adaptations for flight
 In general, the avian skeleton has been
lightened and strengthened for flight.

 This has been achieved by eliminating

some structures and modifying others.
 Adaptations for flight
 Feathered wing.
 Mass reduction
 Wrist bones reduced to two
 Bones hollow and supported by internal struts
or spongy bone
 Reptilian tail lost. Fused tail bones (pygostyle)
support tail feathers
 Teeth lost. Skull and bill light but strong.
Figure 27.08

Bird’s 19.6
Hollow
Bone
 Adaptations for flight
 Skeleton strengthened
 ribs have rear-facing uncinate processes that overlap and

strengthen walls of thorax

 bones of wrist, pelvis fused

 Sternum or breastbone enlarged with a large keel (carina)

for attachment of massive flight muscles -- pectoralis and
supracoracoideus.

 Fused hand bones support and maneuver primary flight

feathers.

 Efficient lungs and powerful four-chambered heart power

flight.
Video- skeleton: http://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/bird-skeleton.html
 Human Bones of Shoulder

Triosseal Canal. http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/350Aves/Images/Aves2.gif

Furcula (in red)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Furcula.png
 Further skeletal modifications for
flight
 Furcula The clavicles are fused to form a
structure called the furcula or wishbone.

 The furcula flexs during flight and spreads

and contracts during each wingbeat. The
flexing may enhance gas exchange by
assisting in moving air through the air sacs.
 http://
www.birdwatching-bliss.com/bird-flight.html
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/1244/95005058.JPG
 FLIGHT
Bernoulli’s Principle - “When the speed of a
fluid (air) increases, internal pressure in the fluid
decreases”
Shape of bird’s wing = airfoil
The high pressure above the airfoil will be
greater than the low pressure above the
wing, causing the bird to “lift” causing the bird
to lift up.
 Lift and thrust
 In order to fly both horizontal thrust and vertical
lift are required.

 Thrust is mainly generated by the primary

feathers (the long ones at the end of the bird’s
hand), which on the downstroke twist and acting
like a propeller push the air backwards.

 Lift is mainly generated by the secondary

feathers (the inner portion of the wing), which
form an airfoil.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_RHRAzUHM
(Peregrin Falcon with camera attached in flight)
 http://
www.youtube.com
/watch?
v=EUEZkwJulBY

Hand –feeding
hummingbirds in
Alaska

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/981/50392155.JPG
 Avian lungs
 The one-way flow of air is achieved by using a
system of air sacs and a two breath cycle.

 On inspiration air flows down the trachea to air

sacs below the lung. On expiration the air mass
flows into the lung where gas exchange takes
place.

 With a second inspiration the air mass in the

lung flows into anterior airsacs and with a
second expiration exits the body via the trachea.
Figure 27.12a
Raven:
http://www.neothera.com
/jpegs/raven.jpg
Magnolia Warbler
http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/WarblerMagnoliaM03.jpg
House Finch
http://www.critterlight.com/House-Finch-6-063003.jpg
Crossbill beak
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41436000/
jpg/_41436817_malecrossbill203rspb.jpg
Bird’s digestive tract and other internal organs
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/824/80016755.JPG
 Feeding and digestion
 Because birds lack teeth they can’t process food
much in the mouth so that is left up to the gastric
system.

 Birds can frequently gather food faster than it

can be processed. This food is usually stored in
the birds crop, an enlarged part of the
esophagus.

 The crop is also used to store food that will later

be regurgitated to chicks.
 Stomach
 A bird’s stomach has two parts the anterior
glandular proventriculus and the posterior
gizzard.

 The proventriculus contains glands that

secrete digestive enzymes. In birds that
swallow whole foods such as fruits the
proventriculus is often very large.
 Gizzard
 The gizzard’s main function is to
mechanically process food.
 The walls of the gizzard are thick and
muscular and the gizzard often contains
small stones, which the birds swallow to
assist in grinding the food. The gizzard
thus fulfills the same role as the teeth in
mammals.
 Gizzard
 The gizzard can exert significant pressure.
For example, a turkey’s gizzard can
process two dozen walnuts in about four
hours.

 It can also crack hickory nuts, which

require 50-150kg of pressure to break.
 Seasonal changes in gut
morphology
 Birds often change their diets over the course of a year
and gut morphology changes too. Insects are more easily
and quickly digested than plant food (e.g. berries).

 When starlings switch to eating more plant material in the

fall their intestines increase in length by about 20% and
decrease by a similar amount in spring when their diet
switches back to animal prey.

 Accompanying the morphological changes are changes in

the types and quantities of digestive enzymes produced
tailored to match the composition of the diet.
 Sensory systems: vision
 Most birds have excellent vision and this is
reflected in the structure of the brain.
There are large optic lobes and the
midbrain which processes visual
information is enlarged.

 In contrast, in most birds olfaction is

unimportant and the olfactory bulbs are
small.
 Hearing
 Birds have hearing that is comparable in
sensitivity to that of humans even though their
heads are much smaller.

 However, they have proportionally much larger

tympanic membranes which enhances sensitivity
to sound. In addition, the cochlea has about 10x
as many hair cells per unit length than a
mammalian cochlea does.
Puerto Rican Screech owl Saw –whet owl
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/caribbean/wildlife-facts/2003/
wildlife-facts_images_2003/pr_screech_owl.jpg
 Hearing
 Owls possess the most acute hearing among
birds (comparable to that of a cat) and can
isolate sounds very accurately even in complete
darkness.
 Owls possess a distinctive facial ruff of stiff
feathers that acts as a parabolic sound reflector,
which focuses and amplifies sounds.
 Some ruffs are asymmetric and the ruff’s
asymmetry (as well as asymmetry in the vertical
placement of the ears) enhances the owls ability
to isolate sounds in three dimensional space.
Barn owl
http://www.usbr.gov/mp/ccao/
newmelones/images/wildlife_barn_owl.jpg
 Hearing
 The asymmetries in the ruff and ears cause
delays in the time at which sounds reach each
ear that can be interpreted by the brain and
used to identify precisely the source of a sound.

 A barn owl’s ability to do this is so good that it

can isolate sound to within 1º in three
dimensional space. If you envisioned yourself
surrounded by a sphere with a radius
approximately equal to your arm length 1º would
be about the area covered by a fingertip.
 Olfaction
 Most birds have a poorly developed sense
of smell, but a few groups do have a good
sense of smell.

 These include kiwis which have their

nostrils at the end of the bill and use odor
cues to find prey when they probe in the
earth.
 Kiwi’s ,the flightless birds that are the national symbol of New Zealand,
appear to sniff out their earthworm prey. (nocturnal)

Brown Kiwi hatched at the Smithsonina National Zoo 2006:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/images/060217_kiwi.jpg
 Olfaction
 Other birds with a good sense of smell are
the various “tubenoses” the petrels,
shearwaters and albatrosses, which are
attracted to the scent of chummed fish and
fish from a considerable distance.

 In addition, turkey vultures have a well

developed sense of smell and can find
even covered carcasses very quickly.
 Sooty Shearwaters and Nothern Fulmars are
attratcted from downwind to the smell of fish oils,
squid, and krill.
http://www.wildland.com/trips/details/Images/anf_albatross_b.jpg
Turkey Vulture: http://www.lakesidenaturecenter.org/images/
AC_Turkey%20Vulture%20Head%20Shot%20from%20MDC.jpg
 Cardinal
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-cBb578jsLk/
RmP1nuxW8II/AAAAAAAAAHM/SCIyggloewY/
s400/cardinal.jpg
European Starling
http://rightofmiddle.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/european-starling.jpg