Birds

Temporal range: Upper Jurassic

Recent

Scarlet macaw (Ara macao)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

(unranked): Archosauria

Class: Aves

Linnaeus, 1758

BirdFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birds are a class of vertebrates, the Aves.[1]

They are warm-blooded and lay eggs. Their bodies are covered withfeathers and they have wings. Feathers have three functions: flight,temperature regulation and display. Most birds have hollow main bones with

air sacs in them.[2] This makes them lighter and makes flight easier.

Birds are bipedal: they have two legs which are often covered with scales(small, flat plates which over-lap in the same way as feathers). They have ahard beak with no teeth.

Because birds keep a high body temperature, they use lots of energy. So,they need to eat a lot of food compared with their weight.

More than 9000 different species of birds are known.[3]

Birds are found on every continent of the world. Birds of different types canlive in freezing cold environments, and others can live in hot deserts. Birdslive in forests, in grasslands, on cliff faces, in river banks, on stony seashores, down mine shafts and in the roofs of houses.

Different types of birds eat different foods. Most birds are carnivorousmeaning that they eat flesh, at least some of the time. Many birds live oninsects or on fish. Some eat small reptiles and mice. Birds of prey eatmammals and other birds. Some birds are scavengers and eat the bodies ofcreatures that have died. Many birds such as parrots and finches live onseeds and fruit. Some birds that eat mainly seeds feed their young on insects.A few types of birds eat green plants, but only one species lives on leaves(the hoatzin). Hummingbirds and honeyeaters live on the nectar or honey inflowers.

Birds come in many sizes from the bee hummingbird that is only 60 mm longto the ostrich which stands 2.5 metres high. The bird with the widest wingspan is the wandering albatross many ofwhich measure 3 metres from tip to tip.

All this applies to living birds. Birds are the descendants of theropod dinosaurs, and the early birds looked muchlike small carnivorous dinosaurs. Much is now known about the origin of birds. From fossils we know that these

dinosaurs had feathers, and early birds had teeth.[4][5]

Contents

1 Body shape

2 Bird colours

2.1 Bird camouflage

2.2 Noticeable colours

3 Flight

3.1 Types of flight

3.2 Flightless birds4 Behaviour

4.1 Mating

4.2 Nesting

4.3 Hatching

4.4 Families

4.5 Flocks

4.6 Communication

4.6.1 Lorenz's studies

4.6.2 Songbirds

4.6.3 The Jackdaw of Altenberg

5 Evolution and taxonomy5.1 The first bird-like creatures

6 Birds and people7 Gallery of well-known small birds

8 References9 Other websites

Body shape

Because birds live on every continent and have adapted to all sorts of conditions, different types of birds look verydifferent from each other. The most noticeable differences are the size, the shape of the beak, the length of the legs,the length of the neck and the colour.

The smallest types of birds are tiny birds that feed on nectar, honey and insects. The biggest birds are flightlessbirds with long legs ostriches, emus and cassowaries. However, very large birds are also found soaring high in thesky eagles, vultures, albatross and pelicans. One way to understand the living habits of a bird is to look at its legsand feet, its beak, its neck and its wings.

If a bird has very long legs, then it probably spends most of its time walking, like a crane, or wading (walking inwater), like a flamingo. Birds with long legs need long necks to match, so they can reach their food. Birds with shortlegs and long necks like pelicans, geese and swans are birds that swim well and dive their heads into the water forfood. Their beaks are often flat for scooping up water weeds. A pelican's beak can change into a shape like a hugebucket for catching fish.

Birds that are shaped like torpedoes are good at diving. Albatross, seagulls and kingfishers all have long strongbeaks for catching fish. Some birds, such as eagles, owls vultures and hawks, have beaks which are hooked andvery large claws (also called "talons") with which they can tear and carry meat.

Grey partridge

Some birds have very long thin beaks that they use for dipping into flowers or poking into holes in the ground.These include hummingbirds, bee eaters and avocets. Some birds have short beaks but wide mouths that areperfect for catching insects in the air, like swallows, swifts and nightjars. Some birds that eat fruit, like toucans andhornbills, have beaks which are enormous, but are very light in weight. The curved beaks of parrots are good foreating large seeds and cracking nuts, while birds that peck small seeds and food from the ground have short beakslike pigeons.

An Ostrich has very longlegs.

A Pelican has a hugebeak.

The Great Hornbill is alarge bird with anunusual beak, photoW.Berns

Hummingbirds areamong the world'ssmallest birds.

Bird colours

Birds come in a huge range of colours. These colours can be useful to a bird in two ways. Camouflage colours helpto hide the bird, and bright colours identify the bird to others of the same species. Often the male is brightlycoloured while the female is camouflaged.

Bird camouflage

Many birds are brown, green or grey. These colours make a birdharder to see; they camouflage the bird. Brown is the most commoncolour. Brown birds include sparrows, emus, thrushes, larks, eagles,falcons and the female birds of many species such as wrens, ducks,blackbirds and peacocks. When a brown bird is in long grass or amongtree trunks or rocks, it is camouflaged. Birds that live in long grassoften have brown feathers streaked with black which looks likeshadows. A Bittern is almost invisible in long reeds. Other birds,including starlings and minahs, are quite dark in colour, but are fleckedwith little spots that look like raindrops on leaves.

Many birds from hot countries are green or have some green feathers, particularly parrots. Birds that live in greentrees often have green backs, even if they have bright-coloured breasts. From the back, the birds arecamouflaged. This is very useful when sitting on a nest. The bird's bright-coloured breast is hidden. Budgerigarsare bred in different colours such as blue, white and mauve, but in the wild, they are nearly all green and yellow.

This Scops owl is almost invisible

against the tree

Pair of Mandarin ducks. A good example

of a general rule: male birds are the showy

ones, females are dowdy

Even though they fly very well, they normally spend a lot of time on the ground, eating grass seeds. Their yellow andblack striped back helps to hide them in the shadows made by long dry grass, while their green breasts are a similarcolour to the leaves of gum trees.

Grey birds include most pigeons and doves, cranes, storks and herons. Grey birds are often rock-living birds likepigeons, or birds that sit on dead tree trunks looking like a broken branch. Water birds like herons often have apale grey colour which makes it harder for a fish to notice that the birdis standing, looking down for something to catch. Water birds, nomatter what colour they are on top, are often white underneath, so thatwhen a fish looks up, the bird looks like part of the sky.

Black birds include crows, ravens and male blackbirds. Some birdsthat are dark colours spend quite a lot of time on the ground, hoppingaround in the shadows under bushes. Among these birds are the maleblackbird and the Satin Bowerbird which is not black but very darkblue. Crows and ravens often perch high on bare trees in the winter,where their black shape against the sky looks like the dark barebranches.

Noticeable colours

Many birds are not camouflaged, but stand out with vivid colours.They are usually male birds whose females are dull and

camouflaged. The function of the colours is two-fold.[6] First, thecolours help them get mates, and second, the colours identify themto other males of the same species. Many birds are territorial,especially in the nesting season. They give out territory sounds andare easily seen. This lets other males know they will defend theirterritory. It sends out a "look elsewhere" signal to their competitors.

Some birds are famous for their colour and are named for it, such asthe Bluebird, the Azure kingfisher, the Golden pheasant, the Scarletmacaw, the Violet wren and the Robin.

Many other birds are very brightly coloured, in countlesscombinations. Some of the most colourful birds are quite common,like pheasants, peacocks, domestic fowl and parrots. Colourful small birds include blue tits, the gold finches,humming birds, fairy wrens and bee eaters (which are also called rainbow birds). Some birds, like those of theBird of Paradise in Papua New Guinea have such beautiful feathers that they have been hunted for them.

The peacock is the best example of a display of colour to attract a mate. Also the male domestic fowl has longshiny feathers above his tail and also long neck feathers that may be a different colour to his wings and body. Thereare only a very few types of birds (like the Eclectus Parrot) where the female is more colourful than the male.

'Pied birds' are black and white. Black and white birds include magpies, pied geese, pelicans, and Australianmagpies (which are not really magpies at all). Pied birds often have brightly coloured beaks and legs of yellow orred. The silver pheasant, with its long white tail striped with fine bars of black, has a brightly coloured face.

King parrot, Australia

Common Shelduck

Kingfisher

Flamingo

Golden Oriole.

Himalayan bluetail

Malayan banded pitta

Flight

Most birds can fly. They do this by pushing through the air with their wings. The curved surfaces of the wings causeair currents (wind) which lift the bird. Flapping keeps the air current moving to create lift and also moves the birdforward.

Some birds can glide on air currents without flapping. Many birds use this method when they are about to land.Some birds can also hover and remain in one place. This method is used by birds of prey such as falcons that arelooking for something to eat. Seagulls are also good at hovering, particularly if there is a strong breeze. The mostexpert hovering birds are tiny hummingbirds which can beat their wings both backwards and forwards and canstay quite still in the air while they dip their long beaks into flowers to feed on the sweet nectar.

A Flock of TundraSwans fly in V-formation.

This Osprey at KennedySpace Centre ishovering.

A Wandering Albatrosscan sleep while flying.

The large broad wings ofa vulture allow it to soarwithout flapping.

The soft feathers of anowl allow it to fly quietly.

Some birds, such as thequail, live mainly on theground.

A cassowary cannot flybut can defend itself.

Penguin's flippers aregood for swimming.

Types of flight

Different types of birds have different needs. Their wings are adapted to suit the way they fly.

Large birds of prey, such as eagles, that spend a lot of time soaring on the wind have wings that are large andbroad. The main flight feathers are long and wide. They help the eagle to stay on rising air currents without usingmuch energy, while the eagle looks at the ground below, to find the next meal. When the eagle sees some smallcreature move, it can close its wings and fall from the sky like a missile, opening its great wings again to slow downas it comes to land. The world's largest eagle, the Philippine Eagle has a wingspan of about 2 metres (6.7 ft) wide.

Birds that live in grassland areas or open forests and feed on fruit, insects and reptiles often spend a lot of timeflying short journeys looking for food and water. They have wings that are shaped in a similar way to eagles, butrounder and not as good for soaring. These include many Australian birds like Cockatoos.

Birds, such as geese, that migrate from one country to another fly very long distances. Their wings are big andstrong, because the birds are large and they stock up on food for the long flight. Migrating water birds usually formfamily groups of 12-30 birds. They fly very high, making use of long streams of air that blow from north to south indifferent seasons. They are very well organised, often flying in a V pattern. The geese at the back do not have toflap so hard; they are pulled on by the wind of the ones at the front. Every so often, they change the leader so thatthe front bird, who does most work and sets the pace, can have a rest. Geese and swans are the highest-flyingbirds, reaching 8,000 metres or more when on migration. Geese often honk loudly while they are flying. It isthought that they do this to support the leader and help the young ones.

Birds that fly very quickly, such as swifts and swallows, have long narrow pointed wings. These birds need greatspeed because they eat insects, catching most of them while they are flying. These birds also migrate. They oftencollect in huge flocks of thousands of birds that move together like a whirling cloud.

Birds that live in bushes and branches have triangular wings that help the bird change direction. Many forest birdsare expert at getting up speed by flapping and then gliding steadily among the trees, tilting to avoid things as they go.Members of the kingfisher family are expert at this type of flying.

Birds such as owls that hunt at night have wings with soft rounded feathers so that they do not flap loudly. Birds thatare awake at night are called nocturnal birds. Birds that are awake during the day are diurnal.

Swans are mated for life.

A Wandering Albatross and Arctic Tern might spend several years without coming to land. They can sleep whilegliding and have wings which, when they are stretched right out, look like the wings of a jet plane.

Bird like chickens that feed mainly on the ground and only use their wings to fly to safety have small wings.

Flightless birds

Some birds do not fly. These include running birds like ostriches and emus and ocean-living birds, the large penguinfamily.

Ostriches and emus do not need to fly because although they feed and nest on the ground, their great size and theirspeed is their protection. Some other ground-feeding birds have not been so lucky. Some birds such as the Dodoand the Kiwi were ground-feeding birds that lived in safety on islands where there was nothing dangerous to eatthem. They lost the power of flight. Kiwis are endangered because European settlement to New Zealand broughtanimals like cats, dogs and rats which kill kiwis and eat their eggs. However, Kiwis and also the rare New ZealandGround Parrot have survived. In the case of Dodos, they were fat and delicious. They were killed and eaten bysailors until there was none left. Other flightless birds which have disappeared are the Great Auk and the Moa.

Penguins spend a great deal of time at sea, where they are in danger from seals. On land, they usually live in areaswhere there were few dangers, until the arrival of European settlers with dogs and cats. Their wings have adaptedto life in the sea and have become flippers which help them in swimming very fast.

Behaviour

Mating

Although birds are warm-blooded creatures like mammals, they donot give birth to live babies. They lay eggs like lizards do. Unlikemost reptiles, the shell of a bird's egg is hard. The baby bird growsinside the egg and after a few weeks, breaks out, or hatches.

Birds in cold climates usually have a breeding season once a year inthe spring. Migratory birds can have two springs and two matingseasons in a year. So can birds that live in hot climates.

When the breeding season arrives, the birds choose partners. Some birds are mated for life, like married couples.These birds include pigeons, geese, and cranes. Other birds look for new partners each year and sometimes a malebird or cock will have several wives.

For birds that choose new mates, part of the breeding season is display. The male bird will do all sorts of things toattract females. These include singing, dancing, showing off the feathers and building a beautiful nest. Some malebirds have splendid feathers for attracting females. The most famous is the peacock who can spread the feathersabove his tail into a huge fan.

A peacock display

The Sarus Crane, likemost cranes, mates forlife and pairs dancetogether.

Emu nest.

A nest of HouseSparrows.

Nesting

Once the birds have found partners, they find a suitable place to lay eggs. The idea of what is a suitable placediffers between species, but most build bird nests. Robins will make a beautiful little round nest of woven grass andcarefully line it with feathers, bits of fluff and other soft things. Swallows like to nest near other swallows. Theymake nests from little blobs of clay, often on a beam near the roof of a building where it is well sheltered. Manybirds like a hollow tree to nest in. Eagle's nests are often just piles of dead wood on the top of the tallest tree ormountain. Scrub Turkeys scratch together a huge pile of leaves that may be 10 metres across. Guillemots lay theireggs on rock shelves with no nest at all. Their eggs are shaped so that they roll around in circles. A cuckoo doesnot make its own nest. It lays its egg in the nest of another bird and leaves it for them to care for. The cuckoo eggsare camouflaged to look like the host's eggs.

When the nest has been prepared, the birds mate so that the eggs are fertilised and the chicks will start growing.Unlike mammals, birds only have one opening as the exit hole for body fluids, and for reproduction. The opening iscalled the cloaca. A female bird, called a hen, has two ovaries, of which the left one usually produces eggs.

Most male birds have no sex organs that can be seen. But inside the male are two testes which produce spermwhich is stored in the cloaca. Birds mate by rubbing their cloacas together, although with some birds, particularlylarge water birds, the male has a sort of a penis inside the cloaca.

Hatching

Once the hen has mated, she produces fertile eggs which have chicks growing inside them. She lays the eggs in thenest. There might be just one egg or a number of them, called a clutch. Emus might lay as many as fifteen huge darkgreen eggs in a clutch. After the eggs are laid, they are incubated, or kept warm so the chicks form inside. Mostbirds stay together for the whole nesting season, and one advantage is that the work is shared. Many birds taketurns sitting on the eggs, so that each adult can feed.

This is not always the case. With Emus, the male does all the sitting and all the baby-minding. With EmperorPenguins it is also the male that cares for the egg. There is only one egg, which he keeps on his feet and under hisfeathers, standing in a big group of males without feeding until the chick is hatched. While the eggs are hatching, thefemales are at sea, feeding, so that they can care for the chicks when they return.

Some birds put the eggs inside or on top of the mound of leaves and twigs. The mound acts like a compost heap.The decomposition of the rotting leaves causes the temperature to rise. This is heat released by the chemical actionof bacterial and fungal respiration. It is the same reaction as that which keeps mammals and birds at a hightemperature. The parents leave the mound. When the chicks hatch, they are able to feed themselves.

Many small birds take 24 weeks to hatch eggs. Albatrosses take 80 days. During this time the female loses a lotof her body weight.

The quickest hatching time is for the Cuckoo. Some types of cuckoos take only 10 days. This means that whenthey hatch in the nest of their 'foster parents', the eggs that the parents have laid are not yet ready. Newborncuckoos are naked, blind and ugly, but they are strong. They get under any eggs that are in the nest and throw themout before they hatch. That means that the cuckoo has the whole care of both parents. Baby cuckoos grow fast andoften get bigger than the parents who feed them.

When baby birds hatch, in most types of birds, they are fed by both parents, and sometimes by older aunties aswell. Their mouths are open all the time and are often very brightly coloured, which acts as a 'releaser', a triggerwhich stimulates the parent to feed them. For birds that eat grain and fruit, the parents eat and partly digest thefood for the babies. It is then vomitted carefully into the baby's mouth.

A Black Redstartfeeding chicks. photoStefan-Xp

Black Swan andcygnets. CC [1](http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/48601074/).

A Reed Warbler feedinga baby Cuckoo. photoRavenloft

Two Sulphur CrestedCockatoos from a bigflock are on the lookout.photo Prazak

Families

Many birds, particularly those that mate for life, are very sociable and keep together in a family group which mightbe anything from 4 or 6 adult birds and their young to a very large flock.

As chicks grow they change the fluffy down that covers them as babies for real feathers. At this stage they arecalled fledglings. Other family members may help care for fledgling chicks, feeding them, and protecting them fromattack while parents are feeding. When the fledglings have their new feathers, they come out of the nest to learn tofly. In some types of birds, like pigeons, the parents watch over this and as the young ones get stronger, will givethem flying lessons, teaching them how to glide, how to fly in spirals and how to land like an expert.

Flocks

Flocks of birds can be very highly organised in a way that takes care of all the flock members. Studies of smallflocking birds like tree sparrows show that they clearly communicate with each other, as sometimes thousands ofbirds may fly in close formation and spiral patterns without colliding (or flying into each other).

Two common behaviours in flocking birds are guarding and reconnaissance. When a flock of birds is feeding it iscommon for one bird to perch on a high place to keep guard over the flock. In the same way, when a flock isasleep, often, one bird will remain awake. It is also common for large flocks to send one or two birds ahead ofthem when they are flying to a new area. The look-out birds can spy the lie of the land to find food, water and

good places to perch.[7]

Communication

Almost all birds make sounds to communicate. The types of noises that they make are different. All birds have crieswhich are the sounds to communicate. Some birds can also sing. These birds are called songbirds. Somesongbirds are robins, larks, canaries, thrushes, nightingales and crows. Birds that are not songbirds are pigeons,seagulls, eagles, owls and ducks. Parrots are not songbirds, even though they can be taught to sing human songs.

A favorite songbird, theEuropean Robin. photoM.Szczepanek

The crow of the roosteris a familiar bird call.

The Pied Currawong, anoustanding singer.

The Jackdaws helpedLorenz to understandbird communication.photo Arpingstone

Lorenz's studies

The Austrian naturalist Konrad Lorenz studied the way in which birds communicate, or talk to each other. He foundthat each type of bird had a number of sounds which they made automatically, when ever they felt a certain way.Every sound had an action that went with it. So, if the bird was frightened, it acted frightened and made a frightenedsound. This told the other birds around it that something frightening was happening.

If a flock of birds were flying over a field, they would be calling "Fly! Fly!" But a hungry bird, seeing somethinggood to eat down below might start calling "Food! Food!" If other birds were also hungry, they would make thesame call until more birds were calling "Food! Food!" than "Fly! Fly!". At this point, the mind of the flock would bechanged. Some of the birds would start to yell "Fly downwards! Fly downwards!" as they sank from the sky, untilthe whole flock was all noisily calling the same thing.

These communication sounds are often short hard sounds like chirps, squeaks, squawks. and twitters. Sometimesthe calls are longer and more musical. They include the "Rookety-coo" sound of a pigeon and the"Cockadoodledoo!" of a rooster. The bird cannot change these sounds. They always make them in the same way.

The bird is locked into making each sound every time a particular idea comes into its head. The connectionbetween how they feel and how they call is innate: they are born with it. Some calls in some species are learnt.Then, it is the tendency to learn which is inherited.

Songbirds

All birds make noises ('bird vocalisation'), but not all sing. Songbirds are passerines, many of which have beautifulmelodic songs. Songs have different functions. Danger cries are different from territorial songs, and mating calls area third type. Fledgling may also have different calls from adults. Recognition calls for partners are quite common.

As to where the song comes from, there are three kinds of species:

1. Those where the song is entirely inherited, and the bird always sings the same song in the same situations.

2. Those where the song is partly inherited, but the bird tunes it in by copying others. In this case the slight

differences between the calls of different birds may be used by partners for identification.3. Those where the song is entirely learnt, and the bird often copies sounds from its environment.

Most singing birds that are kept as pets, like canaries, have several tunes and some variations.

The same species of bird will sing different songs in different regions. A good example of this is the Currawong.This is an Australia bird which is like a black and white crow. In the autumn, families get together in large flocks anddo a lot of singing. Currawongs from some areas sing much more complex songs than others. Generally,Currawongs from the Blue Mountains are the finest singers. The song of the Currawong can be sung as a solo, butis often performed as a choir. One bird will take the lead and sing "Warble-warble-warble-warble!" All the otherbirds will join in and sing "Wooooooo!" When all the birds know the song, the choir will sing the "Warble" part andthe soloist will sing the "Woo!". The song changes from year to year and from place to place.

The Jackdaw of Altenberg

Konrad Lorenz noticed that when birds sing, they often use a lot of their regular calls as part of the song. Lorenzhad a flock of Jackdaws which were scattered during World War II. One day, an old bird returned. For manymonths she sat on the chimney singing her song, but in the song she kept making the call which Lorenz knew meant"Come home! Come home!" One day, to the great surprise of Lorenz, a male bird flew from a passing flock andjoined her on the chimney. Lorenz was sure that it was her long-lost "husband" who had found his way home at last.

Evolution and taxonomy

Main page: Origin of birds

Palaeontologists have found some exceptional places (lagersttten) where fossils of early birds are found. Thepreservation is so good that on the best examples impressions of their feathers can be seen, and sometimes even theremains of meals they have eaten. From these remains we know that birds evolved from small carnivorous

dinosaurs (theropods) in the Jurassic period.[8] They radiated into a huge variety in the Lower Cretaceous. At thesame time, their direct competitors, the pterosaurs, dwindled in numbers and variety, and became extinct at the endof the Mesozoic.

Archaeopteryx, the earliest known

bird

Confuciusornis, a Cretaceous bird

from China

Birds are classified by taxonomists as 'Aves' (Avialae). Birds are the only living descendants of dinosaurs (strictlyspeaking, they are dinosaurs). Birds and Crocodilia are the only living members of the once-dominant Archosaurreptiles.

The class Aves is now defined as all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and

Archaeopteryx lithographica.[9]

The first bird-like creatures

Archaeopteryx, from the Upper Jurassic (some 150145 million yearsago), is the earliest bird which could fly. It is famous, because it was oneof the first important fossils found after Charles Darwin published hisideas about evolution in the 19th century. By modern standards,

Archaeopteryx could not fly very well.[10] Other early fossil birds are,for example, Confuciusornis, Anchiornis huxlei, Microraptor, andother Paraves.

Many fossils of early birds and small dinosaurs have been discovered inthe Liaoning Province of Northeast China. The fossils show that smalltheropod dinosaurs had feathers. These deposits have preserved them sowell that the impressions of their feathers can be clearly seen. This leadsus to think that feathers evolved first as heat insulation, and only later forflight. The origin of birds lies in these small feathered dinosaurs.

Palaeontologists now agree that birds evolved from Maniraptora groupof dinosaurs. This explains why some consider birds to be livingdinosaurs.

Origin of birdsParaves

Birds and people

Canaries are often keptas pets for their beautifulsongs.

The African Grey Parrotis a renowned talker.

Blue-winged Teal.Ducks used to be shotfor sport.

In many countries Storksare thought to bring goodluck.

Some birds are eaten as food. Most usually it is the chicken and its eggs, but people often also eat geese,pheasants, turkeys and ducks. Other birds are sometimes eaten are emus, ostriches, pigeons, grouse, quails, doves,woodcocks, and even songbirds. Some species have died out because they have been hunted for food, forexample the Dodo, and the Passenger Pigeon.

Many species have learned how to get food from people. The number of birds of these species has grown becauseof it. Seagulls and crows find food from garbage dumps. The common pigeon (Columba livia), sparrows (Passerdomesticus and starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) live in large numbers in towns and cities all over the world.

Sometimes people also use working birds. For example homing pigeons carry messages. Nowadays peoplesometimes race them for sport. People also use falcons for hunting, and cormorants for fishing. In the past, peoplein mines often used a canary to see if there were bad gas methane in the air.

People often have colorful birds such as parrots and mynahs as pets. These intelligent birds are popular becausethey can copy human talking. Because of this, some people trap birds and take them to other countries to sell. Thisis not usually allowed these days. Most pet birds are specially bred and are sold in pet shops.

People can catch some bird diseases, for example psittacosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, Newcastle'sdisease, mycobacteriosis, influenza, giardiasis, and cryptosporiadiosis. In 2005, there was an epidemic of birdinfluenza spreading through some parts of the world, often called avian flu.

Some people have birdboxes in their gardens to give birds a place to nest and bird tables where birds can get foodand water in very cold or very dry weather. This lets people see some small birds close up which are normallyhidden away in bushes and trees.

Gallery of well-known small birds

Blue tit

Male House sparrow

Male chaffinch

White-breasted nuthatch

References

1. That is, in the traditional Linnaean classification: Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema Naturae. Holmiae. (LaurentiiSalvii). However, in modern terms, they are a clade descended from coelurosaurian dinosaurs.

2. The air sacs are part of their breathing system.3. del Hoyo, Josep; Andy Elliott & Jordi Sargatal (1992). Handbook of birds of the World. Barcelona: Lynx Editions. .4. Milner, Angela 2002. Dinobirds: from dinosaurs to birds. Natural History Museum, London.5. Benton M.J. et al. 2008. The remarkable fossils from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol biota of China and how they

have changed our knowledge of Mesozoic life. Proceedings of the Geological Association 119, p209228.6. Cott, Hugh B. 1940. Adaptive colouration in animals. London:Methuen.7. These two behaviours have often been observed in the Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoo which has given its

name "Cocky" to the person who keeps a look-out for the police during a burglary.8. Livezey, BC; Zusi, RL (January 2007). "Higher-order phylogeny of modern birds (Theropoda, Aves: Neornithes)

based on comparative anatomy. II. Analysis and discussion". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149 (1):195. . . . .

9. Padian, Kevin; Chiappe L.M. (1997). "Bird Origins". In Philip J. Currie & Kevin Padian (eds). Encyclopedia ofDinosaurs. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 4196. .

10. Senter P. 2006. Scapular orientation in theropods and basal birds and the origin of flapping flight. ActaPalaeontologica Polonica.

Other websites

Avibase - The World Bird Database (http://www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp?lang=EN&pg=home)Bird Hybrids Database - Search by bird name, use Sibley classification (http://www.bird-

hybrids.com/engine.php?LA=En)International Ornithological Committee (http://www.i-o-c.org/IOComm/index.htm)

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Categories: Basic English 850 words Birds

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