Flying Fiasco!

 

By: Brian, Anna, Christian

Vertebrate or Invertebrate?

 

 

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=images+of+birds&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

Kingdom: Animalia


Phylum:Chordata
 

Class:Aves

 

Birds are vertebrates.  A vertebrate is an animal that has a backbone or spinal column.

 

  

 

Bird: any warm blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg.

 

 

The defining characteristics of birds, that people think of first, are their feathers and beak. All modern birds have beaks and feathers.

 

The function of feathers are:

•                flight body temperature control attracting their mates

The tail of a bird is a bony structure, which is very short compared to many reptiles.On the tail is a spreading fan of stout feathers, which forms a very efficient insulation for the control of birds' body heat. As you can see, feathers are a very important structure for the bird, weather the bird flies or not. Feathers are, in reality almost the only distinctive feature of the class, for almost every other characteristic can be matched in some archosaurian group. Furthermore, the feathery covering of birds is, in contrast, not so different than the horny scales which normally cover a reptile body. Feathers are comparable to such scales, with the exception of the complexity of the structure of barbs and barbells instead of the simple scale shape. The reason for any change in bodily structure and function in evolutionary terms for the birds, has been directly related to the ability to fly and fly more effectively. We must make note; that during any evolutionary adaptation, the organism uses what it had to adapt. By that rationale, feathers were not originally evolved for the function of flying, but rather to control body temperature and/or the animal's adornment for attracting mates.

http://hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca//birds/pg1pt2.htm

 

 Birds make up the scientific class Aves. They are warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals that are covered with feathers and possess forelimbs that have modified to become wings. Birds also have scaly legs, and no teeth (except in a few early fossil forms). They maintain a constant body temperature of about 41 degrees C (106 degrees F). All birds today have descended from their flying ancestors, but a few such as ostriches, emus, some grebes, and cormorants have lost their capacity for aerial flight. Others, such as penguins, have become adapted to flying in a much denser medium, water. Birds are found in all habitats, from the icy shores of Antarctica to the hottest parts of the tropics, and from mountains, deserts, plains, and forests to open oceans and densely urbanized areas.

 

 

 

Species of Birds 

The four main types of birds are water fowl, birds of prey, perching, and flightless birds. 

Here is a list of species of birds:

• Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, Vultures (Order Falconiformes)
• Ducks, Geese, Swans (Order Anseriformes)
• Cuckoos, Roadrunners (Order Cuculiformes)
• Owls (Order Strigiformes)
• Doves, Pigeons (Order Columbiformes)

 

Here is a list of flightless birds and what they do instead of flying:

• Penguins swim
• Ostriches run
• Chickens can fly for short distances 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haliaeetus_leucocephalus_-Skagit_valley-8-2c.jpg 

http://www.takeprideinutah.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/penguin.jpg 

 

    

The sternum, or breastbone, is highly modified in birds. Most birds have a keel-shaped sternum, which creates more surface area for the attachment of flight muscles.

 

•               Approximately ten thousand bird species share the world with humans.

•               With over three thousand native species, South America is the world's bird capital. The rought world breakdown goes as follows.

•               South America: 3,200 bird species

•               Asia: 2,900 bird species

•               Africa: 2,300 bird species

•               North America (including Central America, Mexico, United States, Canada and Caribbean) 2,00 bird species

•               United States: 888 bird species

•               Australia: 1,700 bird species

•               Europe: 1,000 bird species

•               Antarctica: 65 bird species

•               The arctic tern possibly holds the title as longest migrator, flying (round trip) 18,600 miles between the arctic and Antarctica.

All birds molt and regrow their feathers.

 

Characteristics of Birds

 

Birds share many characteristics with reptiles. Like reptiles, birds are vertebrates. Birds’ feet and legs are covered by thick scales like those that cover reptiles’ bodies. Also, bird eggs have an amniotic sac and a shell, just as reptile eggs do. Birds also have many unique characteristics. For example, bird eggs have harder shells than reptile eggs do. They also have a horny beak instead of jaws with teeth. Also, birds can use heat from activity in their cells to maintain a constant body temperature. One familiar characteristic of birds is their feathers. Feathers help birds stay dry and warm, attract mates, and fly. Birds take good care of their feathers. They use their beaks to spread oil on their feathers in a process called preening. The oil is made by a gland near the bird’s tail. The oil helps water- proof the feathers and keeps them clean. When feathers wear out, birds replace them by molting. Molting is the process of shedding old feathers and growing new ones. Most birds shed their feathers at least once a year. Birds have two main kinds of feathers down feathers and contour feathers. Down feathers are fluffy feathers that lie next to a bird’s body. These feathers help birds stay warm. When a bird fluffs its down feathers, air is trapped close to the body. Trapping air keeps body heat near the body. Contour feathers are stiff feathers that cover a bird’s body and wings. Their colors and shapes help some birds attract mates. Contour feathers have a stiff central shaft with many side branches, called barbs. The barbs link together to form a smooth surface. This streamlined surface helps birds fly. Most birds can fly. Even flightless birds, such as ostriches, have ancestors that could fly. So, it is not surprising that birds have many adaptations for flight. The most obvious characteristic related to flight is the wings. But birds also have lightweight bodies. And they have powerful flight muscles and a rapidly beating heart. The fast heart rate helps birds get plenty of oxygen-rich blood to the flight muscles.

 

The Story of Some Very unique birds:

On a university campus in Japan. Carrion crows and humans line up patiently, waiting for the traffic to halt. When the lights change, the birds hop in front of the cars and place walnuts, which they picked from the adjoining trees, on the road. After the lights turn green again, the birds fly away and vehicles drive over the nuts, cracking them open. Finally, when it’s time to cross again, the crows join the pedestrians and pick up their meal. If the cars miss the nuts, the birds sometimes hop back and put them somewhere else on the road. Or they sit on electricity wires and drop them in front of vehicles. Biologists already knew the corvid family–it includes crows, ravens, rooks, magpies and jackdaws–to be among the smartest of all birds. But this remarkable piece of behavior–it features in the final program of “Life of Birds”–would seem to be a particularly acute demonstration of bird intelligence. Biologists already knew the corvid family–it includes crows, ravens, rooks, magpies and jackdaws–to be among the smartest of all birds. But this remarkable piece of behavior–it features in the final program of “Life of Birds”–would seem to be a particularly acute demonstration of bird intelligence. The crows in Japan have only been cracking nuts this way since about 1990. They have since been seen doing it in California. Researchers believe they probably noticed cars driving over nuts fallen from a walnut tree overhanging a road. The crows already knew about dropping clams from a height on the seashore to break them open, but found this did not work for walnuts because of their soft green outer shell.

 

Questions:

1. Do birds have vertebrates or nonvertebrates?Explain.

2. How do birds fly?Explain.

3. How many species of birds live in Asia? 

4. What Class/ Kingdom/ Phylum Do the have? Explain.

5.Give The Definition Of A Bird. 

6. Why Are birds useful in everyday lives?

7. What types of birds live in the rainforest?

8. Why can't penguins fly?

 

 

 

Videos Of Birds

 

http://birdcinema.com/

 

http://birdcinema.com/view_video.php?viewkey=48a2ba1077c449479130 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Gallery of exotic birds and bird-related pictures:

   

 

 

 

 

Vocabulary

 

Amniotic - A thin, tough, membranous sac that encloses the embryo or fetus of a mammal, bird, or reptile. It is filled with a serous fluid in which the embryo is suspended.

 

Corvid - Any of a family of stout-billed passerine birds including the crows, jays, magpies, and the raven.

 

Modified - To change in form or character; alter. 

 

Archosaurian - of or relating to the subclass of reptiles.

 

 

Bibliography

 

1.http://greennature.com/gallery/bird-pictures/

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/                         

3. http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=images+of+birds&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haliaeetus_leucocephalus_-Skagit_valley-8-2c.jpg 

5.http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=images+of+birds&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8