The Biology Of Bird Flight - 1822 Words

1.3: The Biology of Bird Flight Bird Anatomy How do the wings work? Intro: Birds have beautiful feathers and lovely songs that bring joy and wonder to us humans. And flight is the feature that probably captures the human imagination more than anything else. For millennia, people have watched birds in the sky and wished we could fly, too. There are almost as many ways of flying as there are kinds of birds. Albatrosses glide and soar with long narrow wings stretched out, sometimes staying aloft for hours without a single wing beat. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, can t rest their wings for even a second in flight. Woodpeckers have a swooping flight, crows fly in a straight line, and swallows dart and weave every which way. A bird s breastbone, or sternum, is shaped like a keel to attach the powerful wing muscles. The bones of a bird s wings are surprisingly small compared to the size of the wing. All the bones and muscles of the wing are in the front and covered with feathers that protect and streamline the wing. The actual flight feathers are attached to the wing within little pits in the bones. Body Features: 1- Lack of nose and teeth: these parts are heavy and too forward.To grind their food, their stomachs have a gizzard near their center of gravity. They use their mouth and the nostrils located on the top of their lightweight beak to breathe. 2-Their tail and wing bones are very short: attached to sometimes long (butShow MoreRelatedTaking a Look at Ornithology643 Words   |  3 PagesOrnithology 　　　Ornithology is a branch of zoology that deals with the study of birds, and ornithologist studies the variety of things on birds such as bird anatomy, behavior, biology, evolution, ecology and physiology. For an ornithologist, there is no standard or even an average starting salary because few people are hired strictly as ornithologist. 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