Portal:Birds

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The Birds Portal
A Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus) collecting nesting material in its beak.
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P:BIRD
Welcome to the Birds Portal! Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, oviparous vertebrate animals. Most scientists believe that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Ranging in size from tiny hummingbirds to the huge Ostrich and Emu, there are between 9,000 and 10,000 known living bird species in the world, making Aves the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrate.

A bird is characterized by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a light but strong skeleton. Most birds have forelimbs modified as wings and can fly.

Birds are important sources of food, acquired either through farming or hunting. Numerous species of birds are also used commercially, and some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular pets. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry and popular music. Numerous species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities and efforts are underway to protect them.


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Selected article

Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus)
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains show they once occurred there too and occasional vagrants turn up. Albatrosses are amongst the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) have the largest wingspans of any extant birds. The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera, but there is disagreement over the number of species.

Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid, fish and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing or diving. Albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of ritualised dances, and will last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt.

Of the 21 species of albatrosses recognised by the IUCN, 19 are threatened with extinction. Numbers of albatrosses have declined in the past due to harvesting for feathers, but today the albatrosses are threatened by introduced species such as rats and feral cats that attack eggs, chicks and nesting adults; by pollution; by a serious decline in fish stocks in many regions largely due to overfishing; and by long-line fishing. Long-line fisheries pose the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait and become hooked on the lines and drown. Governments, conservation organisations and fishermen are all working towards reducing this by-catch.


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Selected picture

a Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea)
Credit: mdf

The Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. It breeds in hardwood swamps in southern Canada and the eastern United States and winters in the West Indies, Central America and northern South America.

Gallery


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Topics

Birds
Anatomy: Anatomy - Skeleton - Flight - Eggs - Feathers - Plumage

Evolution and extinction: Evolution - Archaeopteryx - Hybridisation - Late Quaternary prehistoric birds - Fossils - Taxonomy - Extinction

Behaviour: Singing - Intelligence - Migration - Reproduction - Nesting - Incubation - Brood parasites

Bird Orders: Struthioniformes - Tinamiformes - Anseriformes - Galliformes - Gaviiformes - Podicipediformes - Procellariiformes - Sphenisciformes - Pelecaniformes - Ciconiiformes - Phoenicopteriformes - Falconiformes - Gruiformes - Charadriiformes - Pteroclidiformes - Columbiformes - Psittaciformes - Cuculiformes - Strigiformes - Caprimulgiformes - Apodiformes - Coraciiformes - Piciformes - Trogoniformes - Coliiformes - Passeriformes

Bird lists: Families and orders - Lists by region

Birds and Humans: Ringing - Ornithology - Bird collections - Birdwatching - Birdfeeding - Conservation - Aviculture

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Quotes

“ The bird of paradise alights only on the hand that does not grasp. ”

...All quotes
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Resources

Free online resources:

  • SORA: The Searchable Online Research Archive (SORA) has decades worth of archives of the following journals: The Auk, Condor, Journal of Field Ornithology, North American Bird Bander, Studies in Avian Biology, Pacific Coast Avifauna, and the Wilson Bulletin. Coverage ends around 2000. The ability to search all journals or browse exists on the front page.
  • Notornis: The Journal of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand covers New Zealand and the South Pacific.
  • New Zealand Journal of Ecology: This journal often publishes bird related articles. Like Notornis, thie journals is concerned with New Zealand and surrounding areas.
  • Marine Ornithology: Published by the numerous Seabird Research Groups, Marine Ornithology is specific and goes back many years.
  • BirdLife International: The Data Zone has species accounts for every species, although only threatened species have any detail beyond status and evaluation.
  • Authors Names: This is a good source for binomial authorities for taxoboxes.

There is also Birds of North America, Cornell University's massive project collecting information on every Breeding bird in the ABA area. It is available for 40 USD a year.

For more sources, including printed sources, see WikiProject Birds.


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Selected species

King Vulture portrait
The King Vulture, Sarcoramphus papa, is a large Central and South American bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae. This vulture lives predominantly in tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. It is the only surviving member of the genus Sarcoramphus, though fossil members are known. It is large and predominantly white, with gray to black ruff, flight, and tail feathers. Its head and neck are bald, with the skin color varying, including yellow, orange, blue, purple, and red. The King Vulture has a very noticeable yellow fleshy carnucle on its beak. This vulture is a scavenger and it often makes the initial cut into a fresh carcass. It also displaces smaller New World Vulture species from a carcass. King Vultures were popular figures in the Mayan codices as well as in local folklore and medicine. Though currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, they are declining in number, due primarily to habitat loss.


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Did you know

  • ...that sexual size dimorphism in the Brown Songlark is among the most pronounced in any bird, with males as much as 2.3 times heavier than females?
  • ...that Rufous Whistler birds, unlike all other Whistler birds, never forage on the ground but high up in trees or other high places?
  • ...that the bill of the Magpie Duck (pictured) becomes green as the bird gets older, and its black crown may go completely white?
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Categories

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Related portals

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Collaboration of the month

The current Bird Collaboration of the Month is Bird of prey.

Every month a different bird-related topic, article, stub or non-existent article is picked. Please improve the article any way you can.

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Things you can do

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Taxonomy of Aves

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Associated Wikimedia

Birds on  Wikinews  Birds on  Wikiquote  Birds on  Wikibooks  Birds on  Wikisource  Birds on  Wiktionary  Birds on  Wikiversity  Birds on Wikimedia Commons
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