Portal:Birds

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The Birds Portal
A Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus) collecting nesting material in its beak.
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P:BIRD
Welcome to the Birds Portal! Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, oviparous vertebrate animals. Most scientists believe that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Ranging in size from tiny hummingbirds to the huge Ostrich and Emu, there are between 9,000 and 10,000 known living bird species in the world, making Aves the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrate.

A bird is characterized by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a light but strong skeleton. Most birds have forelimbs modified as wings and can fly.

Birds are important sources of food, acquired either through farming or hunting. Numerous species of birds are also used commercially, and some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular pets. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry and popular music. Numerous species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities and efforts are underway to protect them.


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Red Kite (Milvus milvus) in flight, showing remiges and rectrices
The term flight feather refers to any of the long, stiff, asymmetrical feathers on the wing or tail of a bird; those on the wing are called remiges (singular remex) while those on the tail are called rectrices (singular rectrix). Their primary function is to aid in the generation of both thrust and lift, thereby enabling flight. However, the flight feathers of some birds have evolved to perform additional functions, generally associated with territorial displays, courtship rituals or feeding methods. In some species, these feathers have developed into long showy plumes used in visual courtship displays, while in others they create a sound during display flights. Tiny serrations on the leading edge of their remiges help owls to fly silently (and therefore hunt more successfully), while the extra-stiff rectrices of woodpeckers help them to brace against tree trunks as they hammer. Even flightless birds still retain flight feathers, though sometimes in radically modified forms.

The moult of their flight feathers can cause serious problems for birds, as it can impair their ability to fly. Different species have evolved different strategies for coping with this, ranging from dropping all their flight feathers at once (and thus becoming flightless for some relatively short period of time) to extending the moult over a period of several years.


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The nest and chicks of an Australasian Pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae
Credit: Benjamint444

The Australasian Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae) is a fairly small passerine bird of open country in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. It belongs to the pipit genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae.

Gallery


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Topics

Birds
Anatomy: Anatomy - Skeleton - Flight - Eggs - Feathers - Plumage

Evolution and extinction: Evolution - Archaeopteryx - Hybridisation - Late Quaternary prehistoric birds - Fossils - Taxonomy - Extinction

Behaviour: Singing - Intelligence - Migration - Reproduction - Nesting - Incubation - Brood parasites

Bird Orders: Struthioniformes - Tinamiformes - Anseriformes - Galliformes - Gaviiformes - Podicipediformes - Procellariiformes - Sphenisciformes - Pelecaniformes - Ciconiiformes - Phoenicopteriformes - Falconiformes - Gruiformes - Charadriiformes - Pteroclidiformes - Columbiformes - Psittaciformes - Cuculiformes - Strigiformes - Caprimulgiformes - Apodiformes - Coraciiformes - Piciformes - Trogoniformes - Coliiformes - Passeriformes

Bird lists: Familes and orders - Lists by region

Birds and Humans: Ringing - Ornithology - Bird collections - Birdwatching - Birdfeeding - Conservation - Aviculture

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Quotes

“ It is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise. ”

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Resources

Free online resources:

  • SORA: The Searchable Online Research Archive (SORA) has decades worth of archives of the following journals: The Auk, Condor, Journal of Field Ornithology, North American Bird Bander, Studies in Avian Biology, Pacific Coast Avifauna, and the Wilson Bulletin. Coverage ends around 2000. The ability to search all journals or browse exists on the front page.
  • Notornis: The Journal of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand covers New Zealand and the South Pacific.
  • New Zealand Journal of Ecology: This journal often publishes bird related articles. Like Notornis, thie journals is concerned with New Zealand and surrounding areas.
  • Marine Ornithology: Published by the numerous Seabird Research Groups, Marine Ornithology is specific and goes back many years.
  • BirdLife International: The Data Zone has species accounts for every species, although only threatened species have any detail beyond status and evaluation.
  • Authors Names: This is a good source for binomial authorities for taxoboxes.

There is also Birds of North America, Cornell University's massive project collecting information on every Breeding bird in the ABA area. It is available for 40 USD a year.

For more sources, including printed sources, see WikiProject Birds.


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Selected species

Turkey vulture profile
The Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, also known in North America as the Turkey Buzzard, is a bird found throughout most of the Americas. One of three species in the genus Cathartes, in the family Cathartidae, it is the most common of the New World vultures, ranging from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas. It has dark brown to black plumage, a featherless, purplish-red head and neck, and a short, hooked, ivory-colored beak. The is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its meals using its sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gases produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings only infrequently. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses.It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets, generally raising two chicks each year, which it feeds by regurgitation.


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Did you know

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Categories

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Related portals

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Collaboration of the month

The current Bird Collaboration of the Month is White Wagtail.

Every month a different bird-related topic, article, stub or non-existent article is picked. Please improve the article any way you can.

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Taxonomy of Aves

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Associated Wikimedia

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