Exotics - birds

Question 1

What characteristics do birds and reptiles share?

Answer 1

Scales on beak legs and feet
Single occipital condyle
Single middle ear bone
Jaw bone made up of 5 fused bones

Question 2

What are the red features of the head?

Answer 2

Comb, wattles and ear lobe

Question 3

What are the comb and wattles made up of and what for?

Answer 3

Thickened dermis forming vascularised structures that aid with heat loss

Question 4

What feature on the head can be used for sex/ age determination?

Answer 4

Cere

Question 5

What type of feet do chickens have?

Answer 5

Anisodactyl - first digit points caudally, others point forwards

Question 6

What type of feet do parrots have?

Answer 6

Zygodactyl - digits 2 and 3 point forwards, 1 and 4 point backwards

Question 7

What is the name for webbed feet?

Answer 7

Palmate

Question 8

What is the beak made up of?

Answer 8

Horny keratinised epithelium, vascular dermis then bone

Question 9

What is the keratin layer of the beak called? Upper and lower beak?

Answer 9

Rhampotheca
Rhinotheca - upper
Gnathotheca - lower

Question 10

How are waterfowls tongues adapted?

Answer 10

Lateral side of tongue has bristles, act as a filter system for food particles

Question 11

What is blinking mainly done by in birds?

Answer 11

The nictitating membrane - third eyelid

Question 12

What part of the skull is very big in birds?

Answer 12

Optic lobe - rostral colliculus

Question 13

What is different about bird irises?

Answer 13

Made of striated muscle - can voluntarily retract pupil

Usually dark except in some eg. owls where get paler during breeding season

Question 14

What reflex do birds not have to do with vision?

Answer 14

No consensual light reflex - pupils dont constrict at the same time

Question 15

Why dont birds have the consensual light reflex?

Answer 15

Complete decussation of the optic nerves

Question 16

What is the vascular structure that nourishes the eye called?

Answer 16

Pectan

Question 17

What are the different types of eyes?

Answer 17

Flat
Globular
Tubular - nocturnal, very good visual acuity

Question 18

What are the wing/flight feathers called?

Answer 18

Remiges

Question 19

What are the primary remiges attached to?

Answer 19

Everything distal to the carpus

Question 20

What are the secondary remiges attached to?

Answer 20

The ulna

Question 21

What are the little feathers which cover the body called?

Answer 21

Coverts

Question 22

WHat are the tail feathers called?

Answer 22

Rectrices

Question 23

What do the rectrices attach to?

Answer 23

Pygostyle

Question 24

What is the pygostyle?

Answer 24

Fusion of the caudal vertebrae

Question 25

What are the scales on a birds feet called?

Answer 25

Podotheca

Question 26

What are hairless feather tracts called?

Answer 26

Pterylae

Question 27

What is the name of the leading edge of the wing?

Answer 27

Propertagium | patagia - fold of skin

Question 28

What is used for venepuncture in a bird?

Answer 28

Deep ulnar vein Right jugular vein Medial metatarsal vein

Question 29

What is the name for the gland that aids with waterproofing and feather condition? Where is it found?

Answer 29

Uropygial gland - above tail feathers

Question 30

What occurs in prokinesis?

Answer 30

Depression of the mandible leads to elevation of the maxilla at the craniofacial hinge joint

Question 31

What bones are responsible for prokinesis?

Answer 31

Articular bone - rotating | Quadrate bone - articular bone presses against it and in turn it presses against the paletine bone, lifting hte maxilla

Question 32

How many cervical vertebrae do birds have?

Answer 32

14

Question 33

What are the fused thoracic vertebrae called?

Answer 33

Notarium

Question 34

What is the fusion of the lumbar and sacral vertebrae with the pelvis called?

Answer 34

Synsacrum

Question 35

What are the fused clavicles/wishbone called?

Answer 35

Furcola

Question 36

What does the notarium have which can be a problem?

Answer 36

Free synovial joint which can slip and compress spinal cord - ankylosing spondylolisthesis

Question 37

What does the furcola do?

Answer 37

Opens during downbeat | Elastic energy is used to aid with the upbeat

Question 38

What is a feature of the humerus?

Answer 38

Pneumatised - clavicular air sacs extend into it

Question 39

What does the coracoid bone attach to in birds?

Answer 39

The sternum

Question 40

What are the two flight muscles?

Answer 40

Supracoracoideus | Pectorals

Question 41

What is the function of the supracoracoideus?

Answer 41

Responsible for the upbeat

Question 42

Where does the supracoracoideus attach to and how?

Answer 42

Dorsal part of the humerous - through the Triosseal canal

Question 43

What is different about diving birds skulls?

Answer 43

Small neres/nostrils

Question 44

What are the internal nares called in a bird?

Answer 44

Choanae

Question 45

What does the choanae sit on top of in birds?

Answer 45

The glottis - opening to trachea

Question 46

What does the trachea end in in birds?

Answer 46

Syrinx - larynx equivalent

Question 47

What are features of the sturnum?

Answer 47

Long coils at sturnum Complete interlocking rings High deadspace

Question 48

What are the vocal cord equivalent called in birds?

Answer 48

Tympaniform membranes

Question 49

What are used to manipiulate the tympaniform membranes?

Answer 49

5 pairs of syringeal muscles

Question 50

What is the enlargement of the syrinx called? What does it do?

Answer 50

Osseus bulla | Increases the resonance to create a different call

Question 51

What are the different sections of bird lungs?

Answer 51

Primary bronchi Mesobronchi Parabronchi

Question 52

What are bird lungs made up of?

Answer 52

Firm spongy tissue | No alveoli

Question 53

What is airflow categorised as in birds?

Answer 53

Bidirectional

Question 54

How does the air sac system work in birds?

Answer 54

2 cycles of inspiration and expiration for a bolus of air to go all the way through Only one way through the parabronchi/lungs Insp - caudal air sacs Exp - parabronchi Insp - cranial air sacs Exp - out again

Question 55

What is a feature of the oesophagus?

Answer 55

Crop | Oesophagus deviates to the right

Question 56

What are the two sections of the stomach called and what are they made up of?

Answer 56

Proventriculus - glandular stomach | Ventriculus - muscular gizzard

Question 57

What is the crop for?

Answer 57

Temporary food storage | Crop milk to feed young

Question 58

What is the gizzard for?

Answer 58

Grinding up food - replaces teeth | Contains small bits of grit

Question 59

How many lobes does a bird liver have?

Answer 59

2 - left and right

Question 60

Where is the pancreas located in birds?

Answer 60

Between a double loop of duodenum

Question 61

What kind of caecum do granivorous birds have?

Answer 61

Paired caeca

Question 62

Where is the caeca located in birds?

Answer 62

Arise at junction of ileum and colorectum

Question 63

What is the part of the cloaca where faeces are excreted?

Answer 63

Coprodeum

Question 64

How do birds mate?

Answer 64

Cloacal kissing

Question 65

What birds have a phallus?

Answer 65

Ducks, swans and geese

Question 66

What shape is the phallus?

Answer 66

Corkscrew

Question 67

Where is the ovum fertilised?

Answer 67

Oviduct

Question 68

What is the area that adds the 'egg white' and what is the egg white called?

Answer 68

Magnum | Albumin

Question 69

Where is the shell added?

Answer 69

Shell gland - uterus

Question 70

What is the part of the oviduct that is after the magnum?

Answer 70

Isthmus

Question 71

What is the structure of a birds kidney?

Answer 71

Only a few loops of henle - between a mammal and a reptile

Question 72

How is salt removed from a sea birds blood stream?

Answer 72

Salt glands in nose