H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

It’s a habit of mine to observe behavior of birds that come to my backyard. One thing that I took notice of is that many of the birds are constantly keeping their mouth open. Especially now that we’re still having a heat wave that never ends 😦 This summer has been very hot and dry in our area of Georgia. So I happened to be doing some research about bird’s behaviors and found the following article where most of my questions were answered. I hope it’s as interesting for you as it was for me.

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Birds use their bills largely to forage and eat, and these behaviors strongly influence the shape and size of a bird’s bill. But the bill can play an important role in regulating the bird’s body temperature by acting as a radiator for excess heat. A team of scientists have found that because of this, high summer temperatures have been a strong influence in determining bill size in some birds, particularly species of sparrows that favor salt marshes.The team’s findings are published in the scientific journal Ecography,

Common Grackle

July 20.Scientists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute and colleagues examined five species of sparrow that inhabit salt marshes on the East, West and Gulf coasts of North America. While these marshes are very similar in makeup and structure, the main difference among them is summer temperatures. Focusing on 10 species and subspecies of tidal salt marsh sparrow, the team measured 1,380 specimens and found that the variation in the sparrows’ bill size was strongly related to the variation in the daily high summer temperatures of their salt marsh breeding habitats — the higher the average summer temperature, the larger the bill. Birds pump blood into tissue inside the bill at high temperatures and the body’s heat is released into the air. Because larger bills have a greater surface area than smaller bills, they serve as more effective thermoregulatory organs under hot conditions. On average, the study found the bills of sparrows in marshes with high summer temperatures to be up to 90 percent larger than those of the same species in cooler marshes.

“It is known that blood flow is increased in poorly insulated extremities in some animals, like a seal’s flippers, a rabbit’s ears and the wattles of a turkey helping hot animals to cool down. The bill of a bird can function in much the same way allowing birds to dump heat,” said Russ Greenberg, director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and lead author of the research. “Being able to cool down and not loose excess body moisture is particularly important since these birds live in an environment with direct sun and limited access to fresh water.”

The scientific theory known as Allen’s Rule states that warm-blooded species from colder climates usually have shorter limbs or appendages than the equivalent animals from warmer climates. The team’s new findings are a new example of Allen’s Rule that confirms the importance of physiological constraints on the evolution of vertebrate morphologies, even in bird bills.

Northern Mockingbird

The research team is working with physiologists from Brock University in Canada, employing thermal imaging to develop a more detail picture of how song sparrows that live in dunes and marshes along the Atlantic coast use their bills to stay cool.

 Partial text and all photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Smithsonian,

I know that the news headlines are all related to hurricane “Irene” causing tremendous damage along the east coast of US. The torrential rains causing floods, tragedy of deaths and disruptions in millions of people’s lives. I felt that I had something to say too!

We have family in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, New York and Mainly in New Jersey. By phone and email we’ve been in touch and thankfully all are well. Most just tell you the most common problems:  flooded basement, leaking roof, broken gutters, no way to go anywhere with flooded roads. For other it was harder because they had to evacuate. One young nephew was ready to go on vacation to Punta Cana, DR!. Guess what? All flights were canceled! 😦 He had planned that vacation for so long, bummer!

In the general instance I  feel sad for those people who lost a dear member of their family, also for the ones that got their homes destroyed. I’m sorry!

I’d like to poke Irene in the bleep eye!

Looking at the many reports in form of  TV, video or photos on the web, I stumbled into one that I think is more related to my blog. It gave me a sense of hope in the middle of natural disasters and a clear evidence of compassion even at difficult times such as hurricane “Irene” pounding Manhattan.

Soaked wet pigeon being protected by the finest in an empty Manhattan