Birds And Their Characteristics (1961)

[Music] have you ever dreamed of flying like a bird when we think of flying we usually think of wings wings are one of the important characteristics of birds whether it's a seagull or a pigeon birds are alike in a number of ways they all have certain characteristics let's examine some of the ways in which birds are alike let's look first at the feathers all birds have feathers and birds are the only animals that have feathers feathers cover most of the bird's body and help give it a smooth streamlined shape we'll remove a wing feather from this duck and examine it more closely the stem-like part at the bottom is called the quill above the quill is the vein the main part of the feather under a magnifying glass we can see the long thin parts called barbs that make up the vein along the edge of each barb are tiny branches called barbules which hook the barbs together when a bird uses its beak to comb or preen its feathers it is usually hooking the tiny barbells something like this besides the large contour feathers birds have softer feathers called down feathers on a duck we can find the heavy undercoat of downed feathers so feathers are one important characteristic of all birds a second way in which birds are alike is that they have two wings and two legs most birds use their wings to fly as we saw earlier but there are some birds such as the ostrich that don't fly ostriches have long strong legs and can run as fast as some birds fly another bird that does not fly is the penguin penguins walk upright on their two legs the two wings are almost like the flippers of a seal very good for swimming underwater like all birds penguins have two legs and two wings let's remember that most birds use their two wings to fly here in slow motion we can see how the pigeons wings work and how the wings and tail together control the flight these geese are flying with a steady beat of their powerful wings most birds can also glide as these geese are doing notice how the wings are also used to slow the birds down for a landing a bird's wings are moved by large muscles in the breast the muscles are attached to the breastbone in the skeleton of a pigeon we can see the large breast bone a bird skeleton is strong and light well suited to flying many of the bones such as the wing bones are hollow this makes them light but they're still very strong the bones of the two wings and two legs can be seen clearly in the skeleton a third way birds are alike is that they are warm blooded you can sometimes feel the warmth of a bird's body with your hands human beings and other mammals are also warm-blooded you know that you have a normal body temperature of a little less than 100 degrees to maintain this body temperature your heart beats at a certain rate about like this birds have a higher body temperature that varies between 102 and 112 degrees to maintain this temperature a bird has a faster heartbeat like this because birds are warm blooded they are able to hatch their eggs with the warmth of their bodies after hatching most baby birds are cared for by the parents and kept warm being warm-blooded is an important characteristic of birds birds are alike in a fourth important way they have a bill or beak but no teeth they do not chew their food but use their bills in other ways the peacock has a stout heavy beak well suited to eating large green seeds the long sharp bill of the woodpecker is used to dig out insects found in trees the beak of the hummingbird is very long and slender it is used to sip nectar from flowers hawks and other birds of prey have sharp hooked beaks which are well suited to tearing meat which is the hawks food the duck uses its broad spoon-like beak as a kind of strainer the food is kept in the beak while the water drains out through the sides the crane like other wading birds has a long bill that can be used for probing in shallow water to catch fish and other small animals so beaks and no teeth are a fourth important characteristic of birds just as there are differences in the beaks of birds there are differences in their feet the feet of the pigeon and many other birds have three toes in front and one in back notice how the feet can grip a perch parakeets parrots and other related birds have feet with two toes in front and two in back which help the bird to climb the peacock and many other domestic fowl have large sturdy feet suitable for walking and also for scratching in the dirt when the bird searches for food the webbed feet of a duck are used as paddles in the water although we've seen ways in which birds differ let's remember the ways in which they are alike we'll try to remember four important characteristics of birds all birds have feathers and birds are the only animals with feathers we can remember that birds have two wings and two legs a bird's strong light skeleton is well suited for flying although we saw that not all birds fly a third characteristic is that birds are warm blooded birds have a high body temperature and a fast heartbeat a fourth characteristic is that birds have bills or beaks but no teeth as we study more about birds we'll learn more about the characteristics that help us to understand these interesting animals birds