Birds. Vertebrates Animal Kingdom. Wildlife. Fauna. Zoology. Fauna. Nature of Aragon Spain.

Birds. Vertebrates Animal Kingdom. Wildlife. Fauna. Zoology.

Nature of Aragon > Fauna

Birds are vertebrate animals with the body covered with feathers and with the forelimbs transformed into wings, and reproduce by eggs. Its complexity is almost at the top of the Animal Kingdom.

They have great independence from the environment, which allows them to colonize all types of environments.

They have a skin with a thin but impermeable epidermis aided by the lining of feathers, this prevents the evaporation of water from the internal environment is important. In addition, the excretory system, consisting of a pair of kidneys located in the pelvic region, with two short ureters that flow directly into the sewer, eliminates uric acid in the form of a white paste that is expelled along with feces. Water loss is minimal and allows birds to colonize extremely arid environments.

Another factor that limits life in terrestrial environments is temperature. The birds control it by keeping their body at a high and constant temperature, obtained from internal metabolism. The internal temperature is close to 40 º C. The outer covering of feathers, and breathing are the means that are worth to regulate that temperature since the birds lack sweat glands. The feathers appear in birds primarily to prevent excessive heat leakage and secondarily as parts for the flight. They are scales, modified dermal that come from those that the reptiles had.

La mayoría de ellas están adaptadas para volar.
Existen actualmente unas 6.500 especies.

There are bird species that migrate, coinciding with the changing seasons.

General Characters

The common characters are:

Bird's nest
Bird's nest

The wings

The flight of birds depends on their wings.
The wings of the birds are sustaining and propelling.
Glider birds take advantage of updrafts.

Long, pointed wings allow great speed and autonomy.
Short wings are suitable for short flights.
For example, its short wings allow a very rapid movement to the hummingbird.
The wings and skin of a bird are covered with feathers.

Wings movements.

To move the wings, the birds have large pectoral muscles that, when contracted, produce the descending beat of the wings.
Then the traction of these muscles is reduced and the supracoracoid acts, pulling the pulley-shaped tendon and raising the wings.

The feathers

The structure of the feathers is complex. They consist of a central axis, the calamus or rachis, and a wide and flattened portion of the banner, which is made up of numerous beards, which in turn divide many small chins. The chins on one side of the beard carry numerous small hooks or crochet hooks, which are attached to the nearby chins giving the normal texture of the feathers, continuous and elastic.

A structure as complex and delicate as a feather is, it requires care by the bird and in general they all spend a good part of the day keeping their plumage in good condition.

Basically, plumage care consists in carefully distributing the fat secretion of the uropigial gland, which is located above the tailbone. With a slight pressure of the beak, the gland secretes a certain amount of fat that is then distributed by plumage.

Feather types

The type of feathers described corresponds to the typical feathers, of contour or profile, since they are the ones that give their external shape to the bird. There are other simpler types of pens.

The filoplumas, have the appearance of hairs, due to the atrophy of the beards; they can have tactile function or located around the peak act as collector of insects in some species.
 The down (nibs), formed by atrophy of the part of the calamus that supports the beards, whose function is as thermal insulators, the elaboration of nests, etc.

The feathers shirts are part of the wings as they have a structure that gives them lightness and solidity. They are the ones that hold the birds in the air.
The rudders or tail rectrices work as a rudder, brake and counterweight.

The peak

The beak has numerous forms, it is the part that presents the greatest variability in birds, changing its shape according to the biotope and ecological niche used by each species. This formed by the extension of the jaws and covered by two modified scales.

Said corneal lining has a continuous growth, to compensate for the wear suffered, which in certain groups, such as woodpeckers (spicy), is very high (up to 0.22 mm. per day).
 In relation to the length of the head, the beak is considered long, when it is longer than the rest of the head, and short when it is shorter.

Regarding the form it can be:

CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS

The great variety of birds makes their classification very difficult, since to the diversity of the environments they inhabit, we must add the variety of shapes and colors that can vary greatly within the same species according to sex or time.

The Bird Class is classified into Orders and Families, in this table a quick approximation has been made by bringing them together in groups that have some common characteristic.
They can also be classified in other ways such as mountain, forest, marine, riverbank, marsh, poultry, canoe, etc.

The evolution of the Birds

The most primitive birds develop from certain reptiles.
The oldest reptile fossil but with bird characteristics is the archaeoptera.

arqueopterix

It appeared on Earth approximately 100 million years ago. Like other contemporary reptiles, archaepterix still had teeth, three fingers with claws on the elbow of the wing and a vertebrate tail. The archaepterix was the size of a crow, it was covered with feathers: a precursor capable of planning from one tree to another rather than actually flying.

Other later fossil birds such as ichiornis and hesperornis, who lived on the edge of the water and fly badly, mark the path that the evolution of the birds followed, which is not they developed as a class until the disappearance of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.



Other information about fauna in Aragón:

A small list of species in Aragon would be the following:

Vertebrates Invertebrates

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Amphibians

Fishes

Metazoans

Protozoa

   images about the fauna in Aragon.
   photographs on invertebrates.
   beneficial animals for agriculture.


Also Aragon enjoys a diverse and varied Nature where passing by plants, animals, Geology, or landscapes we can arrive at a fantastic bestiary that lives in its monuments.

The information will not be complete without a stroll by its three provinces, with shutdown in some of its spectacular landscapes like Ordesa, the Moncayo, Monegros or by opposition the Ebro.

Also you can dedicarte to the intangible ones: from the legend compilation that also does to universal Aragon.



Fauna | Flora | Geology | Fungi | Water
Landscapes | Monegros | Moncayo | Ebro | Ordesa
Bestiary | Books | Buffon | Activities | Culturales | Zh2o | Photografies
Document | Nature in Aragon



The pasapues project is an extension of the Aragón project is like that, and tries to collect and relate all possible types of documentary information about Aragon: texts, books, articles, maps, illustrations, photographs, narrations, etc., and proceed to its publication and diffusion.

Birds. Vertebrates Animal Kingdom. Wildlife. Fauna. Zoology. reproduction, physiology, metazoans, celomados, chordates, vertebrates, birds, mammals, ecology, zoogeography,   Water, humidity, wetlands, sea, river, mountain, air, food

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