Identifying Birds Lab Exercise

Parental Care

Most birds are taken care of by at least one parent until they are able to fly and get their own food. The young of passerines are altricial (born naked, blind, and helpless) and require much more care and feeding than precocial young. For information on atricial vs precocial young, REVIEW Precocial and Altricial Young […]

Nests & Eggs

Bird Incubation Period Chicken 20-22 days Ostrich 42-50 days Parakeet (budgie) 27-28 days Pigeon 14-18 days Swan 30 days Toucan 18 days Birds bear their young in hard-shelled eggs which hatch after some time. Some birds, like chickens, lay eggs each day, while others (like the maleo) may go for years between laying eggs. Birds […]

Bird Classification

Birds belong to the biological class Aves and live virtually everywhere on Earth. Birds are amniotes, animals whose eggs are protected from drying out (a group that includes the mammals, birds, dinosaurs, and reptiles). There are about 9,000 different species of birds, divided into 24 orders and 146 families. Most birds alive today are Neognathae […]