What characteristics do all birds have in common?

1. What characteristics do all birds have in common?

2. All birds… • Are vertebrates • Are endothermic • Have feathers • Have a four-chambered heart • Lay eggs

3. The bodies of most (but not all) birds are adapted for flight

4. In order to fly birds need… • 1) Hollow bones • to make the bird lightweight

5. In order to fly, birds need… • 2) large chest musclesto move their wings

6. In order to fly, birds need… • 3) Feathers ---they are the only animals to have feathers

7. Different kinds of feathers: • Contour Feather: one of the large feathers on a bird that gives shape to a bird’s body • Flight Feathers: long contour feathers that extend beyond the body on the wings and tail • Help the bird to balance and steer • Contour feathers in general have a central shaft and projections called barbs • Down Feathers:short, fluffy feathers that are specialized to trap heat and keep the bird warm • Found right next to the bird’s skin at the base of the contour feathers • Are soft and flexible

8. Feathers • Contour Feathers • Down Feathers

9. Feathers

10. Obtaining Food

11. Birds must obtain a lot of food to provide the energy needed for flight

12. Because they need energy for flight and they are endotherms, birds need a lot of food. • Each day, the average bird eats food equal to about a quarter of its body weight • This is why the phrase “You’re eating like a bird” is incorrect….bird eat a lot!

13. What do birds use to capture, grip and handle food?

14. Bills – shaped to help birds feed quickly and efficiently • A bird’s bill is shaped depending on what it eats

15. Example: The pointy, curved bill of a hawk acts like a meat hook to pull off bits of its prey

16. Example: A duck’s bill acts like a kitchen strainer, separating out seeds and tiny animals from muddy pond water

17. Example: Pelicans need a large bill to scoop fish out of the water

18. Birds have special organs to digest food

19. 2 organs that birds have that humans do not are a gizzard and a crop

20. Crop: an internal storage tank for storing food inside the body after swallowing it • A muscular pouch near the throat

21. Gizzard

22. Gizzard: a thick-walled, muscular part of the stomach that squeezes and grinds partially digested food • Birds have one to make up for the fact that they do not have teeth! • The gizzard does the same grinding function for birds that your teeth do for you

23. Keeping conditions stable • Being endotherms, birds need to keep warm • To maintain their body temperature, they use energy from food and feathers to trap heat • Down feathers are specialized to trap heat, as they are found right next to a bird’s skin

24. Birds Reproduction • Have internal fertilization • Lay amniotic eggs • In most species, a female lays eggs in a nest • Bird eggs will only develop at a temperature close to the body temperature of the parent bird • A parent bird usually incubates the eggs by sitting on them to keep them warm • Parents take care of their babies until they learn how to fly