This section of field biology will introduce you to the ecology
of birds and youll be expected to learn the common & scientific
names of 40 species Things youll need Binoculars Field guide
Slide 3
Monday (today) Course overview & introduction to birds
lecture Tuesday (June 29 th ) Introduction to binoculars lecture
Nests & mates lecture Growth & development lecture
Slide 4
Wednesday (June 30 th ) Mist-netting demonstration at Dr.
Butlers house (bring binoculars, camera) Thursday (July 1 st )
Demography and populations lecture MARK lab Species and Communities
lecture
Slide 5
Worth 100 pts Short answer 50 pts Multiple choice 50 pts Short
answer will be to identify birds Will put together a random
PowerPoint presentation with 20 of the 40 birds by sight 10 of the
20 birds by song Youll have 50 seconds per species to write down
common name & scientific name Spelling (and capitalization)
counts! Multiple choice will cover lecture material
Slide 6
"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I
know a hawk from a handsaw." --Hamlet, Act II, scene ii Bird
identification runs the gamut from easy (adult Bald Eagle) to the
extremely difficult (separating silent Empidonax flycatchers) There
are ~650 bird species that breed (or have bred) in the US and
Canada 470 of these species occur in Oklahoma
Slide 7
For this class youll need to know common name, genus and
specific epithet Genus and specific epithet is always italicized
When you are writing it by hand you can either write genus &
species in cursive or you can underline genus and species. Ex:
Sitta canadensis or Sitta canadensis Never: Sitta canadensis or
sitta candensis Common names have been standardized in the US for
over a century and are considered to be proper nouns Capitalize
them accordingly! E.g. Red-breasted Nuthatch, rather than
red-breasted nuthatch
Slide 8
Over 9,000 species have been described worldwide Birds live in
all biomes, from mountains to prairies, on all oceans, and from the
North to the South Pole. The Bee Hummingbird (of Cuba) is one of
the smallest vertebrate endotherms at 5.5 cm long. The feather is
the unique and essential feature or hallmark of birds; however,
feathers were also present in some theropod dinosaurs, although
these feathers were not capable of supporting flight and obviously
served in other capacities such as thermoregulation or mating
behavior. Image from:
http://encarta.msn.com/media_631509452_761569844_-
1_1/Bee_Hummingbird.html
Slide 9
The discovery of the fossil of Archaeopteryx lithographica in
1861 linked birds and reptiles.
Slide 10
Thomas Henry Huxley classified birds with theropod dinosaurs.
Theropods belong to the lineage of diapsid reptiles, the
archosaurians, which includes crocodiles. Fossil evidence from
Spain, China, etc. is accumulating that Huxleys theory is correct.
Dromeosaurs, a group of theropods that includes Velociraptor, share
many additional derived characters with birds, including a furcula
(fused clavicles) and lunate wrist bones that permit swiveling
motions used in flight.
Slide 11
Slide 12
Feather Quill Knobs in the Dinosaur Velociraptor Turner et al.
(2007) Quill knobs were located on the posterior forearm Quill
knobs indicate feathers
Slide 13
The hollow quill emerges from the skin follicle and continues
as a shaft or rachis. The rachis bears numerous barbs. Up to
several hundred barbs are arranged to form a flat, webbed surface,
the vane. Each barb resembles a miniature feather; numerous
parallel filaments or barbules spread laterally.
Slide 14
Feather color may be due to pigments or to structural color.
Pigments, or lipochromes, color red, orange and yellow feathers.
Black, brown, red-brown, and gray colors are from the pigment
melanin. The blue color of the Blue Jay, Indigo Bunting and Eastern
Bluebird is from scattering of light by structure.
Slide 15
Compared with the Archeopteryx, modern birds have light,
delicate bones laced with air cavities. These are termed
pneumatized bones; they are nevertheless strong. The total weight
of a birds feathers may outweigh its skeleton.
Slide 16
Most caudal vertebrae are fused into a pygostyle. Fused
clavicles form an elastic furcula that apparently stores energy as
it flexes during wing beats.
Slide 17
Both the pectoralis muscle (which lowers the wing) and the
supracoracoideus muscles (which raises the wing) are attached to
the keeled sternum The pectoralis contracts, causing the wing to
move downward Relaxation of the pectoralis causes the
supracoracoideus muscle to contract
Slide 18
Dark meat has more myoglobin Myoglobin is similar to hemoglobin
it binds oxygen and provides it to muscles Muscles are composed of
fast-twitch (white fibers with little myoglobin) and slow-twitch
(dark fibers with lots of myoglobin) Fast-twitch fibers depend on
anaerobic glycolysis for energy production while slow-twitch rely
on aerobic TCA or Krebs Cycle for energy production Muscles used
frequently (e.g. legs in turkeys) are typically dominated by
slow-twitch fibers
Slide 19
Omnivorous birds are euryphagous, specialists are
stenophagous
Slide 20
Contrary to the saying to eat like a bird meaning to eat
little, birds are voracious feeders. A hummingbird eats 100% of its
body weight each day, a blue tit about 30% and a chicken, 3.4%.
There are few taste buds, but birds can taste to some extent
Esophagous Crop Stomach (Proventriculus & Gizzard)
Slide 21
The four-chambered heart is large, with strong ventricular
walls. Birds share with mammals a complete separation of
respiratory and systemic circulations. The heartbeat is relatively
fast compared to mammals and is inversely proportional to size. A
Black-capped Chickadees heart beats approximately 500 times per
minute Bird red blood cells (erythrocytes) are nucleated and
biconvex
Slide 22
The finest branches of the bronchi are tube-like parabronchi
leading to air sacs. A large portion of the air bypasses the lungs
and flows directly to the air sacs on inspiration. On expiration,
this oxygenated air flows through the lungs. Thus it takes two
respiratory cycles for a single breath of air to pass through the
system.
Slide 23
Slide 24
A pair of large metanephric kidneys is composed of many
thousands of nephrons. Each nephron has a renal corpuscle and a
nephric tubule. Note that bird kidneys are less efficient than
mammal kidneys Birds use the vertebrate pattern of glomerular
filtration and selective resorption. Urine flows through ureters to
the cloaca, where urine is concentrated into uric acid.
Slide 25
The core of the cerebrum, the corpus striatum, is enlarged into
the principal integrating center. The cerebellum is where
muscle-position sense (proprioception), equilibrium sense and
visual cues are assembled. The optic lobes bulge to each side of
the midbrain and form a visual association apparatus. Sense of
smell is (usually) less well developed then in mammals
Slide 26
The bird eye is similar to the mammal eye, but it is relatively
larger for a given body size. A pecten is a highly vascularized
organ attached to the retina and it juts into the vitreous humor
Many birds have two foveae or regions of detailed vision; this
provides both sharp monocular and binocular vision.
Slide 27
The early airspace was an unexploited habitat with flying
insects for food. Flight also provided rapid escape from predators
and ability to travel to better environments. There are two
hypotheses on the evolution of bird flight. 1) The ground-up
hypothesis is based on running birds with primitive wings to snare
insects. 2) The trees-down hypothesis has birds passing through
tree-climbing, leaping, parachuting, gliding, and finally powered
flight. Feathers preceded flight and arose for thermoregulatory
purposes.
Slide 28
Over two-thirds of the total lift comes from negative pressure
from the airstream flowing a longer distance over the top of the
wing, the convex surface. At a point near 15 o, the angle of attack
becomes too steep and stalling occurs.
Slide 29
Slide 30
Use of visual landmarks (short-distance) Solar compass
(long-distance) Stellar compass (long-distance) Olfaction
(short-distance) Response to geomagnetism (long-distance)
Slide 31
Garden Warbler image from http://news.nationalgeog
raphic.com/news/bigphot os/61412945.html
Slide 32
There are many advantages for flocking together: mutual
protection from enemies, greater ease in finding mates, less
opportunity for an individual straying during migration and mass
huddling for protection against low night temperatures during
migration.
Slide 33
Males of most species lack a penis; mating involves bringing
cloacal surfaces in contact. In most birds, the left ovary and
oviduct develop and the right ovary and oviduct degenerate. The
expanded end of the oviduct, the infundibulum, receives the
discharged eggs. Special glands add albumin or egg white to the egg
as it passes down the oviduct. Farther down the oviduct, the shell
membrane, shell, and shell pigments are also secreted.
Slide 34
Over 90% of bird species are monogamous; they only mate with
one partner each breeding season. Monogamy: In a few species, such
as swans and geese, partners are chosen for life. A smaller number
are polygamous; individuals mate with two or more partners each
breeding season. Examples include polygyny (one male, many females)
and polyandry