Essential Facts About Birds

There are approximately 10,000 species of birds in the world. Bird species

It’s a bit of a shocker to those people who are proud of their mammal heritage that there are nearly twice as many species of birds as there are mammals — about 10,000 and 55,000 respectively, all over the globe. Most commonly, the most popular kinds that birds have include “passerines,” or perching birds

Which are distinguished by the branch-clutching arrangement of their feet as well as their tendency to break into songs. Other noteworthy groups of birds are “Gruiformes” ( cranes and rails), “Cuculiformes” (cuckoos), and “Columbiformes” (pigeons and doves) as well as a few different classifications.

There are two major bird Groups

Naturalists split the bird species, referred to by the Greek names ” aves,” into two infraclassesnamely ” palaeognathae” and ” neonate.” Strangely enough, paleaeognathae which is also known as “old jaws” comprises birds that first developed in the Cenozoic Era following the time that dinosaurs were extinct, mainly the ratites, such as ostriches the emus, and kiwis. Do Birds Have Ears

The Neognathae is also known as “new jaws” have their roots far further back in the Mesozoic Era as well as include the various types of birds, such as those mentioned in slide 2. (Most paleognathaeare completely unflightless, with the odd exception of the Tinamou in Central as well as South America.)

The most important species of animals can be identified by the skin coverings they wear: animals are hairy and fish have scales. arthropods have exoskeletons and birds also have feathers.

It is possible to imagine that birds developed feathers to fly. However, you’re misinformed on two points one, it was the birds’ ancestors which were dinosaurs who first developed feathers, secondly feathers have evolved with the primary purpose to conserve body heat and were chosen through evolution, allowing the first birds to take flight in the air.

As we’ve discussed in the previous slide, evidence is indisputable that dinosaurs evolved from birds. However, there are a lot of details regarding the process that is yet to be established.

For instance, it’s possible that birds evolved three or more times independently over the time during this Mesozoic Era, however, only one lineage was able to survive the extinction of the K/T over 65 million years.

It then spawned the ducks, doves, as well as penguins that we know and cherish in the present. (And If you’re wondering what makes modern birds not dinosaur-sized the answer is that it all boils down to the mechanisms of powered flight as well as the complexities in evolution).

As vertebrate creatures bird species, they are closely related to all other vertebrate creatures that are alive or ever existed on the earth. However, you might be shocked to discover that the vertebrates family that modern birds are the most closely to is crocodiles who evolved as dinosaurs did, out of a group of archosaur reptiles in the latter part of the Triassic period.

Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles all vanished during the K/T Extinction Event however, the crocodiles managed to remain alive (and are willing to devour any bird whether close to kin or not, who occurs to be landed on their toothy snouts).

One thing you’ve probably observed about birds, particularly passerines is that they are relatively small, which means, among other things, that they require a reliable method to find the other in mating season.

This is why perching birds have developed an array of intricate songs such as trills, whistles, and whistles that allow them to draw attention to other birds of their species within dense forests in areas where they are almost inaccessible. The bright colors of certain birds also perform as a way of signaling, typically to show superiority over males, or to announce sexual arousal.

The word “monogamous” has different meanings in the animal kingdom, TEMP than it does in humans. For birds, this means that males and females of many species get together during a single breeding season, engage in sexual relations, and then raise their offspring, after which they can choose to seek out new partners for the coming breeding season.

Certain birds, however, remain monogamous until the male or female dies while some females possess an interesting trick they are able to use when they need to in an emergency: they can store the male sperm and utilize it to fertilize eggs, which can last for as long as three months.

There are many different kinds of parenting styles across the bird kingdom. In certain kinds of species, the parents help incubate eggs. In other species cases, one parent takes to care of hatchlings.

In others, only one parent is responsible; and in some, the parental care is not necessary in any way (for example, the malleefowl in Australia lay eggs in decaying patches of vegetation that provide an unnatural source of heat and then the fledglings go totally independent once they have hatched).

It’s not even mentioning the oddities like the cuckoo bird that lays eggs in nests of other birds and gives their incubation, hatching, and feeding to complete strangers.

Birds have a Very High Metabolic Rate

In general, the more compact and less exothermic (warm-blooded) creature is, the greater its metabolic rate. One of the most reliable indicators of a species’ metabolic rate is the heartbeat. You might think that the chicken is just sitting doing nothing at all however, its heart beats at around 250 beats per min however, the speed of heartbeat of a sleeping bird is over 600 beats per min.

A healthy cat in a house is able to rest at a heart rate that ranges between 150-200 bpm in comparison to the pace of a mature hummingbird’s heart is at around 100 beats per minute.

Birds Aided in Inspiring The Idea of Natural Selection

While Charles Darwin was formulating his theory of natural selection in the early 19th century, he carried out thorough research into the finches that resided on the Galapagos Islands. He observed that finches on the different islands differed greatly in the size of their beaks as well as the shape of their beaks.

They were obviously adapted to their particular environments, but clear as they were all descended to a common ancestral lineage who was ashore in the Galapagos many thousands of years earlier. The only way that nature could have managed this feat was through evolution by natural selection according to what Darwin claimed in his groundbreaking book on the Origin of Species.