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Birds to symbolize innermost psychic strivings of humankind; the soaring ebullient skylark, the dark brooding owl, the grey bellies against grey sky [invisible] as for hundreds of years poets voiced our highest hopes and aspirations also darkest fears and deepest melancholy. What is a Bird? All birds are placed in the Class Aves. The defining characteristic of all birds is the presence of feathers. There are several other characteristics that birds share, with other animals but feathers are the only characteristic completely unique to birds.
The diference between birds and most mammals are in these obvious ways, they walk on two legs and have two wings, they have feathers instead of hair and a beak instead of jaws with teeth. Birds are also similar to us in some ways, they are warm blooded with a normal body temperature of around 40C [several degrees warmer than most mammals], they also have two eyes and two ears, though these are not normally visible. Most birds have little or no sense of smell. Birds have also had to evolve a compact body shape in order to facilitate flying. There are over 10,000 species of birds in the world [about 2,900 in Asia]. Scientists have divided the Class Aves into 27 orders. Each order is subdivided into families of related genera and species. Scientists group birds together by searching for common structural characteristics of their anatomy and genetic similarities. With the help of scientific classification system I presented these photographs. Please bear with me and enjoy the fancy words. Here are the 27 orders of birds in alphabetically. Around 5200 species, well over half of all birds, belong to the order Passeriformes, the perching birds or
passerines. They have a special section. |
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