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BIOL 307 > BIRDS > Flashcards

BIRDS Flashcards

1
Q

What does “flight is central” mean?

A
  • The mechanical requirements of flight shape many aspects of the
    anatomy of birds
  • Flight makes long-distance migration possible
  • Wing movements also used during swimming by aquatic wing propelled species (e.g., penguins), while others use feet to swim (e.g.,
    ducks, cormorants).
    -Some birds have lost the ability to fly (e.g., ostriches, emus, kiwi)
    -Many species spend most of time on the ground, and only fly short
    distances to escape predators (e.g., grouse, roadrunners)
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2
Q

What is a Caudipteryx?

A

A feathered dinosaur. Early form of a bird.

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3
Q

What are the morphological changes that characterize modern birds?

A

-Center of gravity shifted forward toward
wings
-Bony tail greatly shortened
-Fused vertebrate at end of tail form pygostyle
-Strut-like coracoids: help shoulder girdle resist
pressure from wings
-Reduction in size of claws on feet: better for
perching
-Larger sternum: more area for attachment of
flight muscles
-Wrist can bend sharply backward: to tuck
wing against body

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4
Q

Extant birds are called what?

A

Neornithes

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5
Q

How many extant species of birds are there?

A

10 000

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6
Q

What is the most successful lineage of birds?

A

Passerines (perching birds)
-600 species characterized by modifications of feet and legs that allow toes to hold tightly to a perch, even when the bird is asleep

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7
Q

What are Paleognathae (rattites)?

A

Flightless birds. Large (emu, ostrich) and small (kiwis). Common in southern hemisphere.

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8
Q

What are the types of Neognathae? (1/4)

A
  • Galliformes: ground-dwelling: fowl, quail, megapodes
  • Anseriformes: semi-aquatic ducks, geese, relatives
  • Apodiformes: hummingbirds and swifts. Arboreal with specialized flight
  • Cuculiformes: cuckoos: brood parasites
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9
Q

What are the types of Neognathae? (2/4)

A
  • Charadriiformes: shorebirds; stilts, plovers and oystercatchers
  • Gruiformes: cranes, rails, coots
  • Phoenicpoteriformes: flamingos
  • Procellariformes: pelagic seabirds, albatross, petrels
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10
Q

What are the types of Neognathae? (3/4)

A
  • Spechnisciformes: penguin
  • Ciconiiformes: predatory, longlegged waders, stork, heron, ibis, pelican
  • Passeriformes: perching birds
  • Psittaciformes: parrots and cockatoos
  • Columbiformes: pigeons
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11
Q

What are the types of Neognathae? (4/4)

A
  • Falconiformes: falcons, birds of prey
  • Coraciiformes: kingfishers, kookaburras. Carnivorous and insectivorous
  • Piciformes: woodpeckers. Aboreal insectivores
  • Acciptiformes: Hawks, eagles, birds of prey and scavengers.
  • Strigiformes: Owls, nocurnal, predatory.
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12
Q

How does flight impose on the maximum size of birds?

A

-The muscle power required for take-off increases by a factor of 2.25 for each doubling of body
mass. Muscles of a large bird must work harder than muscles of a
small bird.
-Wing beat frequency is lower in larger birds

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13
Q

How do bird feathers develop?

A

-Develop from follicles in the skin
-Arranged in tract which are separated by patches of unfeathered
skin

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14
Q

What are feathers made of?

A

-Feathers are 90% beta-keratin.
Remainder is water, lipids, proteins, and
pigments.

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15
Q

How are feather colours produced?

A

-Colours are produced by structural characters and pigments
-Oranges and reds are carotenoids
from diet - often an signal of individual
quality
-Blues are structural

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16
Q

What is the structure of the most complex feathers?

A 
The calamus extends
into a central rachis
which branches into
barbs, and then into
barbules with small
hooks that interlock
with nearby
barbules.
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17
Q

Pennaceous v.s. Plumulaceos

A 
Pennaceous= stiff and flat
Plumulaceos= downy and loose
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18
Q

What are the characteristics of wing feathers?

A

(Remiges)
-specialized for flight; uniform windproof surfaces, or vanes, on
either side of the central shaft; asymmetric with a shorter, less flexible leading edge that prevents
midair twisting.

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19
Q

What are the characteristics of tail feathers?

A 
(retrices)
-interlocking microstructure
similar to wing feathers;
arranged in a fan shape;
support precision steering in flight. In some birds, tail
feathers have evolved into
showy ornaments that are
useless in flight.
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20
Q

What are the characteristics of contour feathers?

A

Cover body; arranged like overlapping shingles; waterproof tipsare
exposed, downy bases are tucked close to body.
-can help the bird show off or stay camouflaged. -Contour feathers on the wing (coverts) shape it
into an efficient airfoil by smoothing over the region where the flight feathers attach to the bone.

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21
Q

What are the characteristics of semiplume feathers?

A

Mostly hidden beneath other feathers on the body,

semiplumes have a developed central rachis but no hooks on the barbules, creating a fluffy insulating structure.

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22
Q

What are the characteristics of down feathers?

A

Loose branching structure; little or no central rachis; relatively short and close to the body where they trap body heat.

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23
Q

What are the characteristics of filoplume?

A

Short simple feathers with few barbs, filoplumes function like mammal whiskers to sense the position of the contour
feathers.

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24
Q

What are the characteristics of bristle feathers?

A

simplest feathers; stiff rachis that usually lacks barb branches. Most commonly found on the head; protect the bird’s eyes and face

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25
Q

How do birds achieve weight reduction for flying?

A

They lack a urinary bladder, have only one ovary and gonads are usually small. Hypertrophy during breeding season.

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26
Q

How do birds streamline?

A

Contour feathers on he wing (coverts) shape and make efficient airfoil by smoothing over region where feathers attach to the bone.

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27
Q

How is the bird skeleton modified for flight?

A
  • Many bones are air-filled and the skill is especially light. Leg bones are actually heavier than those of mammals.
  • Center of gravity is beneath the wings
  • Flight muscles attach to the keel of sternum
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28
Q

What feather helps to smooth airflow over the wing?

A

The alula feather.
Reduces turbulence and helps avoid stalling.

Flapping flight is automatic and unlearned

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29
Q

What are the 4 wing types?

A
  1. Dynamic soaring
  2. Elliptical
  3. High aspect ration
  4. High lift
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30
Q

What is Dynamic Soaring? (1)

A

Long, narrow wings, rely on strong winds. Done by albatrosses and shearwaters

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31
Q

What is Elliptical flying? (2)

A

Maneuverable, good for forests & woodland birds, low aspect ratio, rapid
flapping, slow flight.

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32
Q

What is High Aspect Ratio flying?

A

Aerial foragers, long migrations, fast.

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33
Q

What is High Lift flying?

A

Static soaring (like vultures), use rising air masses. Can adjust position using movements of individual feathers.

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34
Q

What are the types of bird feet?

A
  • Anisodactyl: 3 toes forwards, 1 back. Perching.

- Zygodactyl: 2 forwards, 2 back. Climbers like parrots and woodpeckers.

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35
Q

What are the two types of diving birds?

A
  • Foot-propelled (like cormorants)

- Wing-propelled (penguins)

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36
Q

Types of bills:

What are lead gleaners?

A

(eg: warblers)

Have short, thin, pointed bills for eating insects.

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37
Q

Types of bills:

What are aerial insectivores?

A

(nightjar, flycatchers)

Short weak beaks with a wide gape

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38
Q

Types of bills:

Carnivorous birds

A

-Have heavy pointed beaks to kill prey. Also use talons

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39
Q

Types of bills:

Butcherbird bills

A

Kill prey using whiplash. Then impales it on thorns.

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40
Q

Types of bills:

Red brossbil

A

Specialized for extracting seeds from cones.

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41
Q

Types of bills:

Chickadee

A

Can have bill deformity caused by viral infection

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42
Q

Types of bills:

Hornbills

A

Omnivores. Eat fruits, insects, small insects. Cannot swallow food caught at the tip of the bill. Toss food back with a jerk of the head.

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43
Q

What types of birds have long tongues and how do they use them?

A

Woodpeckers and humming birds have long tongues, the base of which wraps around the back of the skull.
Woodpeckers have barbed tongues.
Humming birds have tongues that split at the top to use capillary action to suck up nectar.

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44
Q

What is the crop?

A

It is an enlarged portion of the esophagus that is specialized for temporary storage of food.
Adults can regurgitate from crop to feed young.

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45
Q

What does the birds gastric apparatus do?

A

Consists of an anterior glandular stomach (Proventriculus - secretes acids and enzymes) and a posterior glandular stomach (gizzard).

46
Q

What are some features of bird intestines?

A
  • Small intestine= site of chemical digestion using enzymes
  • Large intestine is short
  • Pair of ceca are found at the junction of small and large intestines, contain symbiotic organisms that ferment plant material
47
Q

What does the cloaca do?

A

Stores wastes while water is reabsorbed: birds secrete salts of uric acid (uricotelic), and some also have salt glands.

48
Q

What do starlings intestines do?

A

change diet from insects in spring, to plant material in
winter. In response, their the length of their intestine changes by 20% seasonally to accommodate diet shifts (longer for herbivory).

49
Q

What are the features of bird poop?

A

White colour is urates, fecal matter is dark.

50
Q

What are pecten (in bird eyes)?

A

Blood capillaries surrounded by pigmented tissue. Function unknown. Possibly supplies nutrition.

51
Q

What are some basic features of bird eyes?

A
  • Eyes are large
  • Shape ranges from flat to tubular
  • Large eyes (like owls) tend to be tubular, bulge out of skull
52
Q

Birds have how many photosensitive pigments in retinal cells?

A

4 = tetrachromatic vision

53
Q

What do the photosensitive pigments in bird eyes do?

A

-3 pigments absorb maximally at red, green, and blue (like humans)
-In birds with the ancestral
condition, the 4th pigment responds to wavelengths at 400 nm (deep blue)
-A mutation in the gene for this 4th pigment allows some species of birds to perceive into the UV spectrum.
-UV reflectance used to indicate sex differences, physiological status, health of nestlings, own vs parasitic eggs.

54
Q

How is age indicated in white-winged choughs?

A

Colour. More red=older. Eyes engorge with blood when they become excited

55
Q

What type of hearing do birds have?

A

Sauropsid. Single ossicle spans middle ear.

In birds, cochlea is specialized for fine distinctions in the frequency and temporal pattern of sound.

56
Q

What does facial ruff in owls do?

A
  • Parabolic sound reflector- focuses and amplifies sound

- Owl ruffs and skulls are asymmetrical to allow greater sound localization.

57
Q

What does the size of olfactory bulbs indicate?

A

Rough indication of olfaction sensitivity across species.

They are poorly developed in most birds.

58
Q

What kind of birds have larger olfactory bulbs?

A

Ground-nesting and colonial nesting species, species associated with water.
Smell can be used for navigation or to locate prey in certain species.

59
Q

What are the there main types of pigments in birds?

A
  1. Melanin= produces dark colours
  2. Carotenoids= reds, oranges and yellows
    (Melanin and carotenoids are both obtained from the diet= intensity may be used to gauge fitness of prospective mate)
  3. Porphyrins are metal-contain compounds that
    emit red fluorescence under UV light
60
Q

What is the difference between a bird call and a bird song?

A 
Song = long, complex vocalization; in most of world produce mainly by males during the breeding season for attraction mate and establishing territory.
Call = short vocalization
61
Q

How can songs indicate individuality of birds?

A
  • Songs may have region dialects for individual recognition

- Can indicate individual quality of the bird

62
Q

What are some non vocal displays?

A

Drumming, clapping, whistling, striking objects and making sound with air passing over feathers.

63
Q

What are visual displays in birds?

A

A particular body posture that may accompany singing. Aids in mate selection and territory defense

64
Q

What do bowerbirds do?

A

Collect objects of particular colour to display at their nests. Create illusions to make the males appear larger than they are

65
Q

What is the key factor in bird mating systems?

A

Whether one sex can control resources that the other sex needs or not

66
Q

How does resources distribution affect male birds?

A

-If resources are evenly distributed, it is difficult for a male to control a large
enough area to monopolize many females= all males have access to resources and to females
-If resources are clumped in spaces, with barren areas between patches, females aggregate in resource patches, and it will be possible for a male to monopolize several females by defending good patches.

67
Q

What is the incentive for pair formation in birds?

A
  • The need for attendance by both parents to raise a brood to fledging.
  • Sometimes constant attendance of the nest is necessary
68
Q

What is monogamy in birds?

A

Bond between a single pair that lasts an entire lifetime

Monogamous birds tend to lose sexual dimorphism.

69
Q

What is polygamy in birds?

A

Individual has more than one mate per season

70
Q

What is polygyny?

A

A male mates with more than one female

71
Q

What is polyandry?

A

A female mates with more than one male

72
Q

What is promiscuity?

A

A mixture of both polygyny and polyandry

73
Q

What is social monogamy?

A

System in which

male and female share responsibility for a clutch of eggs, but do not demonstrate fidelity

74
Q

What is genetic monogamy?

A

Social system in which a male and female share parental responsibilities and do not have extra-pair copulations.

75
Q

What is cooperative breeding?

A

Offspring receive care from their parents and other group members called helpers.

76
Q

What do the Cape York Eclectus parrots do?

A

-Females control rare nest cavity resources and stay there to defend them. Results in an unusual mating system where females are conspicuous and males blend in. Exhibit cooperative polyandry, females mate with two or more males and then all raise the chicks together. Males feed the female. Males are green and females are bright red as a warning. Females have been known to fight to the death.

77
Q

What are kind of reproduction do birds have?

A

Oviparity. Birds are endothermic and can use their body heat to regulate egg temperature, even outside of their body. Oviparity is the ancestral state.

78
Q

What are the bird eggs made of and how are they formed?

A
  • Eggshells are crystalline calcite, embryo obtains ~80% of its calcium of the shell.
  • Eggshell formation begins in the isthmus of the oviduct
  • Pigments are laid down by paint gun pigment glands as the egg rotates
79
Q

What are some features of eggshells that allow them to develop properly?

A

-Eggshells have pores to allow oxygen, CO2 and water to diffuse across

80
Q

Why must bird eggs lose water?

A

-Bird eggs must lose water to create space for an air cell at the blunt end of the shell. The embryo penetrates the membranes of the air cell with its beak 1-2 days before hatching, and ventilation of the lungs begin.

81
Q

What is an egg tooth?

A

Before hatching, chick develops an egg tooth (horny projection of the upper jaw) to break out of the egg.

82
Q

What kind of sex chromosomes do birds have?

A

Heterogametic sex chromosomes

83
Q

Are males or females the heterogametic sex?

A

Females.

Sex chromosomes of female birds are ZW and males are ZZ.

84
Q

What does presence of the W sex chromosome do?

A

Causes the developing gonad to secrete estrogen, which stimulates the left gonad to develop as an ovary & associated oviduct and shell gland.

85
Q

What do megapods retain?

A

A component of temperature-dependent sex determination. These birds deposit eggs in
mound of soil, and hatchlings are fully developed, and not reliant on parents when they
emerge. Tend to develop as males at high temperatures

86
Q

What is function of nests?

A

Protect eggs from cold, heat, rain and predators
Can range from shallow depressions in the ground to enormous structures which can be made from many individuals over the generations.

87
Q

What kind of nests do night hawks make?

A

Depressions in the ground

88
Q

What kind if nests do weavers make?

A

Nests made by up to 500 individuals made over many years

89
Q

What kind of nests do ruby throated hummingbirds use?

A

Crafted from bark, leaves and decorated with lichen for camo

90
Q

What kind of nests fo Swiftlets make?

A

This nest is made exclusively out of the bird’s saliva. It is built in layers, usually over protruding rocks on inclined walls of a dark sea cave. Harvested for bird’s nest soup

91
Q

What kind of nests do little grebes make?

A

Floating platforms made from twigs, submerged in aquatic vegetation.

92
Q

What kind of nests do hornbill females build?

A

The female build herself into the nest to protect from predators and males feed her through slits

93
Q

What kind of nests do excavators make? (like woodpeckers)

A

Cavity nests. In trees, may . be used for generations.
Cavities are important and expand as they age. The large, older cavities provide an important resource for large bodied nesters.

94
Q

How do birds do incubation?

A
  • Birds regulate temperature of developing eggs by incubation
  • Feathers hinder heat transfer from the bird to the egg
95
Q

What do brood patches do?

A

Brood patches are areas of bare skin on the ventral surface of the skin. Feathers are lost from this patch, and blood vessels proliferate.

96
Q

How do incubation periods range?

A

10-12 days to 60-80 days.
-Trade off between developing quality young v.s. reducing the time nestlings are highly vulnerable to predation in the nest.
Larger birds have longer incubation periods

97
Q

What is the ancestral form of parental care in birds?

A

Precocial young= able to feed themselves at hatching, with a period of association between the young and one or both parents.

98
Q

What is altricial parental care?

A

Birds may also be altricial. Naked at hatching and entirely dependant on parents for food and thermoregulation.

99
Q

What is a feature of altricial nestlings?

A

(mouth gape) are bright and stimulates adults to feed nestlings.

100
Q

What is bird navigation based on?

A

A combination of sensory cues. It is very complex.

101
Q

How do pigeons know how to fly home when released in an unfamiliar environment?

A

Use sun as a compass and an internal clock would help them get home. Pigeons were thrown off course on sunny days. No effect on over cast days.

102
Q

What are some navigation mechanisms of birds?

A
  • Using sun as a compass with an internal clock to account for sun’s change in position depending on the time of day
  • Abiltiy to sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use it as a compass.
  • Polarized and UV light
  • Airborne odours
  • Visual landmarks
  • Star pattern may be used by nocturnal birds
103
Q

How can birds detect Earth’s magnetic field?

A

Cyptochrome proteins in retina are link to magnetic field detection. “Has to do with quantum physics”

104
Q

What can pigeons sense?

A

Extremely low frequency sounds generated by ocean waves from thousands of kilometers away

105
Q

What % of birds migrate?

A

~40%

106
Q

What do birds rely on during migration?

A
  • Stop over points to replenish fuel stores. This is largely threatened by humans.
  • Breeding sites and wintering sites
  • Fraser estuary is an important stop over point for millions of birds
107
Q

What are the costs of migration?

A

-High energy, dangerous

108
Q

What are the benefits of migration?

A
  • Breeding in high latitudes is beneficial because resources are abundant and the days are longer providing more foraging time.
  • Food sources may be unavailable in winter, temperatures drop. Migration is worth it.
109
Q

What does prep for migration involve?

A

Period of heavy eating and fattening, fat deposits increase 10x
-Day-length is primary stimulus for initiating migration

110
Q

How has climate change effected migration?

A
  • Growing seasons and flowering times of plants in high latitudes now begin earlier in spring and extend later into fall
  • Migratory birds arriving earlier at summer breeding ranges, laying eggs earlier
  • Birds have evolved breeding cycles to match those of their prey, so that eggs hatch when there is maximum food availability for for nestlings. –Changing temperature can throw cycles out of sinc=mismatch .

BIOL 307 (8 decks)

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