The Characteristics Of Birds

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Register to read the introduction… Most have the ability to fly. Some use ground travel. Some use claws, others use only their beaks. Birds come in many varieties of colors and …show more content…
Over half of them occurred in the 1800’s. Another thirty percent occurred in the 1900’s. Over ninety percent of these extinction’s were island forms, which are particularly vulnerable to human interference. Destruction of habitat is the biggest cause of extinction. Other causes are the introduction of predacious animals, and disease plays it’s part too.
     The respiratory system in birds serves to transfer oxygen to the bird’s bloodstream. Unlike mammals, birds do not have sweat glands. So they cannot cool themselves through perspiring. Air sacs throughout the body are connected to the lungs. As the bird breathes, the air sacs help cool the birds organs. The average body temperature of birds is about 106° F.
     Birds do not have any teeth. This means that birds must cut food up with their beaks or swallow it whole. On a bird’s esophagus their is a bag-like swelling called the crop. Bird’s can store food there until there is room in the stomach for it. They can also store food their for their young. In most birds, the stomach is two parts. the first part is where digestive juices are added.
The second part, called the gizzard, has thick , muscular walls for grinding
…show more content…
The nutritious matter is absorbed in the small intestine. Then waste matter moves on to the large intestine. All waste from birds release from the bird’s vent in the rear of the body.
     The circulatory system distributes blood through the bird’s body. The heart of a large bird, like an ostrich, beats approximately the same rate of a human’s heart, 70 times a minute. Other small birds, like a hummingbird, have a heart beat of more than 1000 times a minute! Arteries in birds carry blood from the heart to organs in the body. Veins return blood to the bird’s heart.
     A bird’s nervous system consists basically of nerves and a brain. Nerves carry messages from a bird’s senses to the brain, and from the brain to the muscles. This provides a reaction to something. On a bird’s brain, the cerebellum is relatively larger than a cerebellum on a mammal. The cerebellum is what birds use to control balance and the muscles they use to fly.
     Male birds have testes and the female birds have ovaries, just like in other vertebrates. Most birds mate by pressing their vents together. Sperm

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