Ornithology Exam 2, Exam 2 - Ornithology (all sets combined)

avian excretory system

- combines both liquid and solid waste into a single substance called urates.

- Requires less water than mammals

-Maintains salt and water balance

-removes waste, especially Nitrogen

How do birds get water?

-drink water

- food (fishing and nectar)

-from cellular respiration- oxygedation "metabolic water" ->more adapted than humans by conserving water

Avian nephrons

- 6 kidney lobes

- 2 types of nephrons (work the same as humans)

- some have the loop of henle (similar to mammal) some are loopless (like reptiles)

- 70-80% are reptile type- bad at water and salt balance in nephrons

- good at nitrogenous waste in kidneys

Uric acid

- each molecule has 2x the N as urea

- insoluble in water (so it does not poison the eggs and mix with the water in them)

- formed in liver

- energy intensive but less water

- concentrated in kidneys and actively secreted into tubules->coated and passed on

- further concentration is done in the intestines (retrograde peristalsis)- exchange K pumped in and H2O and NaCl leave so there is balance of salt and water in the large intestine

- Na+ actively transported, Cl- follows, H2O follows both ions

- May take in too much salt (non-passerines) will have salt glands to excrete (eye sockets and nose) and primarily in sea birds (albatross and petrels)

bird ovaries

- granules that develop embryo and yolk

- have 1 ovary on the left side (except kiwi)

- multiple eggs will grow at a time

What is the process of developing an egg?

- ova deposited with yolk from liver -> then goes to uterus -> fertilized once infundibulum -> magnum where albumin and chalaze happen -> isthmus egg and shell membrane ->uterus shell gland (CaCO3, Ca3, (PO4)3) and color -> once finished will excrete egg

What do females need to eat while developing eggs?

- need more calcium for shell of eggs

- insects, shells of eggs, in extreme cases pull out of own bones

How often are eggs layed?

- usually once a day and with multiple eggs in transit

- bigger birds take longer like raptors, penguins, and ostriches (3-5 days)

- hornbills will take one week

- chickens were bred to lay eggs when they were not fertilized

Male reproductive system

- have testes and develops at night to keep cool

- testes near an airsac to keep cool

- near vas defrens during the day to stay cool

- most don't have a penis except for some waterfowl

- invert cloaca and do the cloaca kiss

Bird Digestive System

- No teeth (beak)

- food follows a pathway: esophagus, crop, proventriculus, gizzard, small intestine, large intestine, cloaca (rapid digestion)

bills differ in type of food eaten

- nectar feeders have long and unique

- slaty flower piercer goes to bottom of flower and lets nectar drip into beak

- probers = woodcock and sandpipers

- filter feed- flamingo (strong tongue to pump water)

- seed eaters - cardinals, crossbills, grouse

- meat eaters- hooked bills- eagles, osprey

hyoid apparatus

- supports the base of the tongue, the pharynx, and larynx

- small triangle used to manipulate food

- for tactile and not taste

- woodpeckers have a long tongue that shoots (with barbs) out to catch insects and sticky saliva

edible nest swiftlet

salivary glands get big in breeding season and make nests out of saliva

pelicans

esophagus expand when eating fish

pigeons

have pigeon milk (saliva mixture) to feed young

sunbittern

use esophagus for communication (low notes)

what is the crop used for?

- food storage

- can be lined with epithelium

Kakapoo

- eat tough mountain grass to help digesting bacteria material in crop

Hoatzin

have 2 chambered crop to help with fermenting bacteria

if energy requirements are low...

birds will feed less/less often -> so it can mate and ward off predators

consequences of using energy

tropical birds have elaborate and time expensive mating displays

why do temperate birds have to feed constantly?

they are restricted when there are high levels of resource availability during the breeding season

fat storage vs. food storage

- storage isn't common

- some passerines and tropic birds will build up 5% of fat overnight for warmth

- birds will get bigger and fatter in colder places (penguins) and will stay with eggs for long periods of time and lose 40% of body fat

- some will keep fat in wishbone

- do lots of food storage (seed caching)

acorn woodpeckers

Store acorns in granaries drilled into trees for food storage

loggerhead shrike

will store meat on trees to soften and eat later

why do birds have color?

- physiologically (cormorant)

- communication

- functionality (reflection reduction- kestrel)

- crypsis background matching

Crypsis (camouflage)

- blending with the environment to decrease detectability

- poorwills, woodcock, whip-poor-will, Am. Bittern, willow ptarmigan, warblers in trees, quetzel

disruptive coloration

- a color pattern that helps break the outline of an organism

- "I am not what you think I am"

- killdeer, sandpipers (like rocks)

crypsis reverse color shaping

- telling organisms "I am here"

- am golden plover

aposematic coloration

- Bright warning colors in animals with a chemical defense.

- saying "I am meaner than you think I am"

- sunbittern

conspicuous

- Easily seen or noticed

- "look at me"

- rose-breasted grosbeak, black-throated green warbler, hooded merganser, duck speculum, white crowned sparrow, yellow-billed cuckoo (spots)

territorial display

- a demonstration to an intruder that the resident is ready to defend an area

- "I am badder than you are"

- red-wing black bird with epaulets

mating display

-often ritualized everyday displays

-like feeding

-ptiloerection (raising feathers)

-preening

preening

-in birds, the act of grooming and maintaining their feathers

-royal terns rub bills on each other

-albatross preen each other

sexual selection

-A form of natural selection in which individuals with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates.

-promotes elaborate displays and gils selecting based on what she genetically chooses

-Vogelkopp bowerbirds

vogelkopp bowerbirds

-will make a hut, decorate it with beetle casings and pink flowers (can vary)

Bulwer's Pheasant and temminck's tragopan

both attract with wattles

buff breasted sandpiper

flash armpits to attract mates

Capercaillie

fight each other and intruders

widow bird

very long tail for display and could potentially be caught by predators

argus pheasant

very large wings and tails to attract

extrinsic display

-more displays on the outside of the body

intrinsic display

-more internal displays that apart of the body and sometimes deleterious to survival

arbitrary choice

-females are simply attracted to traits

-positive feedback and linkage disequilibrium between

ornament and preference

-could be imprinting from what their fathers had

Species Recognition

-species closely related have close up difference and if they are not clear distinctions hybridization can happen

-young whooping cranes will imprint very strongly so people dress up as them since they are endangered

age recognition

wood ducks are able to tell by color recognition and signals for reproduction mating

reverse sexual dimorphism

-females are larger and/or more colorful than the males

-wilson's phalarope

status recognition

-have a hierarchy of order in a group

-ruffs are either tan, black, or white- black are highest s and tan are outcasts

visual signals

-can help and avoid physical damage

threat displays

-bill is pointed up (geese) can also sleek itself back

-most of the time it is a lie and is not actually going to attack

-moorhens will fluff up tails and feathers with a submissive display

Vocal Display

-song directed to mate or competitor

-call is shorter and has smaller communication

Magellanic Woodpecker

knocking on tree trunks and use bill to communicate

palm cockatoo

use a stick and beat against wood to communicate

african broadbill

voice sounds like someone blow across a blade of grass

some improvise their songs and are complex

wood warbler, pied flycatcher, sedge warbler

Nighten gale

sing throughout the night for a potential mate

tawny owls

duet songs with each other

why sing?

-its cooler and sounds can travel farther in the mornings

-species recognition

-find unrecognizable birds or species and defend territory

-nest colonially and need to know what birds are what

caspian terns

have individualized calls between young and parents since they are in a colony

mimicry

-15-20% of passerines

-social status (northern mocking birds move up in rank with more songs they mimic)

-sneakiness- will get other birds to attack their predator

-family together- kagu will call then do visual cues

interspecific communication

-communication between members of different species

-woodpecker, BC chickadee, warbler will communicate if in a clock

extrinsic communication

-communication outside the body

-peacocks (any bird that does visual displays for mating)

Eastern Towhee

15 noises

song

-vocal display with specific repeated patterns of sound, usually only males

-passerines

-songs can be added to the end of songs

call

-short, simple, given by males and females

-can be for stress, sex, feeding, nesting, warnings...

sonograms

-A graph showing the volumes of sounds at different frequencies.

-visualize songs

-can have introductory notes

some birds that sing and have introductory notes

white-throated sparrow, Am. robin, chipping sparrow, song sparrow

is a low frequency call short or long wavelength?

long

is a high frequency call short or long wavelength?

short

Why does singing depend on the environment?

in an open area songs can be high frequency and more complex since there is not obstacles like vegetation. But low frequencies need to travel further with a lot of vegetation

booming bittern

-low frequency that can travel 2 miles

-use air sac to make sound

syrinx/syryngeal bird

-varies in the amount of membranes that can make sound more complex

-Medial labia makes the sound and needs pressure from interclavical air sac

-the labia membrane if it is thicker it can control more sound

storks, ratites, and new world vultures (syrinx)

-do not have syrengial muscles to make extra noises/can't change form of the muscles

non-passerines (syrinx)

-have 2 pairs of extrinsic muscles not in syrinx itself but outside

-herons, ducks

oscine (syrinx)

-lot more muscles

-6 pairs of internal

-many on labia

-expands range of frequency

-80% passerines are oscine

-complex songs

suboscine

Passeriforme subfamily Tyranni

-simple muscles & songs

-invariant

-only 1 pair of extrinsic

-syringeal muscles-air sacs

-lack labia on extrinsic and more simple

-middle bone is different

-complex songs

past syrinx (post-source modulation)

-swans, cranes, etc

-have tracheae that coil in sternum or body

-greater resonance and volume

-can vary with length of trachea with muscles or by opening and closing the beak

how do birds filter sound

-by opening and closing their beak

-beak size can vary too

-smaller beaks can open and close quickly

- larger beaks are slower and they will have slower harmonies

How do birds know songs?

- will either be genetically imprinted (inherited vocalization) and calls are innate

-meadowlark inherit songs and know calls

-brood parasites need to know songs by inheritance since they don't grow up with parents

learned songs

-learn throughout life

-open ended

-parrot

-mockingbirds

age and songs

-limited time to learn songs when younger

-learning period, silent (digesting songs), practice period (babbling) (1 month), song crystallization period (takes a couple weeks)

-can invent song during practice period

-testosterone turns of learning period

-chaffinch have 1 year to learn

regional dialects

-Variations in a single language based on geographical location of the populations

-white-throated sparrow have different dialects because there were different groups during the ice and glaciers

-BC chickadee only 1 dialect since their group was all together during ice age

-10,000 years ago

Territoriality

Defense of a space against encroachment by other individuals.

patterns of dispersal

Clumped - most common; near required resource

Uniform - usually antagonistic interactions

Random - unpredictable spacing, not common in nature

territory

-an area, region, or piece of land

-fixed or mobile area that is continuously defended for some period of time- either breeding or not

-defended by chasing or display and either by individual, mated pairs, families, or groups of unrelated birds

what affects territory size?

-body size, energy demand, food habits/diet

-hawks need more of this compared to a cardinal

-food abundance (pomarine jaeger) eat lots of lemmings

-density of competitors (tree sparrows) defend core and periphery if there are few competitors

feeding territories

-hummingbirds will defend flowers

-sandpipers defend territory only at low tide when there are more resources

nesting territory

-defend only their nest and the area immediately adjacent to it

-caspian terns - as far as they can reach with their beak

Display territory

-defend patches for mating display

-cocks of the rock males will defend a patch of ground during lek

all purpose territory

-most common

-feed, mate, babies, display

-meadow lark (except grows) very common in song birds

territory defense

-usually against conspecifics but can be against each other

-robins and kingfishers

mockingbird territory

defend against and species near their berry trees

acorn woodpecker

will defend acorns against anyone

costs of defense

-exposure to predators (cats and hawks)

-need to patrol(check borders, sing)

-chase off competitors

-reduced time doing other things

when territories do not make sense

-if resource varies in time (tree swallows), follow insects, resource is too scarce or abundant, when it is not your space (many are neophobic)

flocking

-anti-territorial behavior

-works well when resources are unstable or too widespread, indefensible areas (too large)

-yellow and black (western panama have flocking colors and any species)

disadvantages of flocking

visibility, competition (pigeons), disease, pecking order and might not get as much food (can release tension), aggressive actions

ant bird pecking order

-assort themselves by size acellated->bicolored-> spotted (know spot in pecking order)

advantages of flocking

-foraging, protection, mating, chick rearing, aerodynamics, warmth

-pecking order and breaks up tension(bohemian waxwing and house sparrows)

-cooperative feeding (am white pelican) surround fish

-beater effect to have someone go in the front "sacrifice"

-watch others feeding (young learn what to eat)

-group vigilance (snow geese)

-reducing predation a lot of numbers(safety in numbers)(snowgeese)

-mobbing (crows vs bald eagle, RWBB vs. red tailed hawk) multiple species against 1 predator

reproductive output

-The number of offspring an individual or population produces

-male is only constrained about # of mates he gets

-female constrained by energetic demand of making eggs and usually caring for young