Do Birds That Fly and Birds That Walk Have Similar Brains Like Humans

Birds are creatures designed for efficiency that has the ability to fly in midair with power and wonder.  They have features as bills, feathers, and vocal communication that distinguish them from other living things.  Since they fly, they have a body light to be easily lifted without excessive expenditure of energy yet strong enough to withstand the many stresses of aerial life and strong enough to be efficient in the air and blowing wind.  Since birds have no forelimbs, they can reach objects on their own bodies with their bills and they have feathers that are instrumental in flying, play a role in temperature regulation and the color patterns are essential in display and camouflage.  The avian forelimbs are dedicated almost entirely too aerial flight to meet the diverse demands of survival without hands.

      Their feathers cover their bodies and are the only organisms living on earth with them and have a number of different functions that are instrumental in flying.

     Their soft feathers receive less damage from impact with branches, and their stiff feathers promote fast flight and make them more maneuverable in open air space. Long feathers of the wings and tail are called the flight feathers.  The shape of these feathers determines the movement of air over their wings that create the aerodynamic forces that enable flight.  Flight feathers of the wings include the long primaries located near the wingtips, and the shorter secondary feathers that line the trailing edge of the inner wing. The number of feathers on a bird’s body can vary from around 1,000 to more than 25,000 on swans.   Waterfowl tends to have a comparatively large number of feathers, and birds living at high latitudes may have a greater number in winter.  

     The number of secondary feathers varies with body size.  Hummingbirds have only six or seven, and albatrosses can have as many as forty.  Contour feathers which line the body and cover the base of the major wing and tail feathers provide birds with waterproofing, insulation, and streamlining which is important in their moving through the air with low drag. There are other feather types beneath the contour feathers called semi-plumes and down feathers.  They trap air and insulate against heat loss improving the bird’s ability to stay warm in winter.  The extent and insulation ability of down plumage varies with climate.

     Tail feathers are connected to a bone at the base of the spine composed of fused vertebrae.  They play an important function in controlling flight, especially in enabling a bird to change direction or to reduce flight speed quickly. Quill feathers of a bird’s tail are important in controlling flight direction.  A number of birds have developed elaborate displays that involve modified quill feathers as peacocks and birds-of-paradise.

     Although the feather is a symbol of lightness, feathers still account for between 15 and 20 percent of a bird’s total weight.  By contrast, a bird’s skeleton is often less than half the weight of the feathers and most feathers include a stiff central shaft that attaches to the skin. 

     Birds come in many shapes and sizes.  The most striking examples are the extremes, the Ostrich. The largest bird weighs approximately 330 pounds while the Bee Hummingbird is only 0.07 ounces, 1.12 ounces, less than the weight of a penny.  Though vastly different in size, color, and behavior, all members of the bird world are similar from an architectural standpoint.  That’s because everything about a bird’s physical structure, and much of its physiology, is affected to some degree by the constraints of flight.  To maintain efficiency in the air, they must minimize their weight as much as possible.

     Designed with hollow bones and placement of its organs, a bird can accomplish effortlessly what man can only dream about.  Flight opened the world to birds allowing them to move about quickly and infiltrate the earth’s remotest areas in their quest for survival.  It also imposed major restrictions on them, such as the absence of teeth and an inability to chew food.

     Birds are the only vertebrate group in which all species reproduce using external eggs.  Unlike some reptiles, fish, and mammal, no bird gives birth to fully developed young.  Reproduction using external eggs minimizes the time during which females must carry developing young in their bodies, thus minimizing the time during which the added weight of the eggs make flying difficult.  They also have unique hard-shelled eggs that provide protection not available to other egg-laying animals.  Hollow bones, a highly efficient digestive system, and the lack of a heavy toothed jaw are examples of avian adaptation that help to lighten a bird’s mass.  It also advertises’ how efficient the Creator was that created them.