Adaptations of Desert Birds

1. Distinctive colour

– Those colors ranging between sand and dirt, yellow and white, and brown color of the gravel to perform several functions :

1. Concealing Coloration

2. Mitigation of radiation of sun which falling on their bodies.

Desert Birds get water directly through :

1. Drinking water directly

2. Eating and extraction of water from the food.

3. Physiological processes that occur in the body.

Water Balance

Circadian Rhythm

Heat avoidance • Limiting activity and avoiding direct sunlight are

helpful strategies for limiting heat gain.

• Many birds are crepuscular, limiting their activity to dawn and dusk, and spending most of the day in the shade.

Conserving water •Birds must eliminate waste products, so water

is lost from the body during the elimination process.

•All birds are able to avoid wasting water in the excretion of metabolic wastes by reabsorbing water from feces before excretion, resulting in the production of a highly concentrated fecal paste of uric acid.

Ways to reduce the loss of energy

1. Reduction or refusing breeding during dry period which takes a large amount of energy.

2. Reduction of the metabolic processes carried out by the bird. – There is a difference on the level of the cell, and this

includes reducing the rate of secretion of thyroxin secreted from thyroid gland to reduce basal metabolic rate and reduce the pumping of calcium and sodium or reducing the density of mitochondria which is responsible for the concentration of urea.

•

3. Increasing of size of body organs like the heart, kidney and the liver compared to other types of non-desert areas.

4. Feathers play a role as an insulant from high temperatures and water loss through evaporation where it was found that the skin has the ability to reduce the rate of evaporation through change of the fat layer in the stratum corneum of the skin

5. It was also noted that desert birds are characterized by low number of eggs produced and slower growth of young.

Behavioral adaptations to reduce the impact of heat and loss of water, for example

Behavioral adaptations to reduce the impact of heat and loss of water, for example

• They go to shadow, whether trees or grasses

• They use certain plants to cool their bodies .– Trigonella (Trigonella stellata)

• Some birds limit themselves to certain positions to avoid high temperatures.

• Some birds change the sites of their nests according to temperature changes.

الهدهدية القبرة

المكاء

م سالم ا

ملهية الرعيان

Hoopoe Larklaemon alaudipes

م سالم صوتك يوم قمتي تغنين هيضنييا ا

يا زين صوتك في ليالي المواسم

رض قمتي تاللينبعد جمال اال

المراسم ونكـتب جوابك بالقلم

Common Name: The Greater Roadrunner

Geococcyx californianus

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