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The following is a glossary of common English language terms used in the description of
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The following is a glossary of common English language terms used in the description of bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s—warm-blooded vertebrates of the class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
Aves and the only living dinosaurs, characterized by , the ability to in all but the approximately 60 extant species of flightless birds
Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites ( ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is th ...
, toothless, , the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart
The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...
and a strong yet lightweight skeleton.
Among other details such as size, proportions and shape, terms defining bird features developed and are used to describe features unique to the class—especially evolutionary adaptations that developed to aid flight
Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be a ...
. There are, for example, numerous terms describing the complex structural makeup of feathers (e.g., , and ); types of feathers (e.g., , and feathers); and their growth and loss (e.g., , and ).
There are thousands of terms that are unique to the study of birds. This glossary makes no attempt to cover them all, concentrating on terms that might be found across descriptions of multiple bird species by bird enthusiasts and ornithologists
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This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also :Ornithologists.
A
* John Abbot – US
* Clinton Gilbert Abbott – US
* William Louis Abbott – US
* Joseph H. Acklen – US
*Humayun Ab ...
. Though words that are not unique to birds are also covered, such as or , they are defined in relation to other unique features of external bird anatomy
Bird anatomy, or the physiological structure of birds' bodies, shows many unique adaptations, mostly aiding flight. Birds have a light skeletal system and light but powerful musculature which, along with circulatory and respiratory systems cap ...
, sometimes called . As a rule, this glossary does not contain individual entries on any of the approximately 9,700 recognized living individual bird species of the world.
A
B
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E
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F
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H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
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See also
*Glossary of dinosaur anatomy
This glossary explains technical terms commonly employed in the description of dinosaur body fossils. Besides dinosaur-specific terms, it covers terms with wider usage, when these are of central importance in the study of dinosaurs or when their ...
Explanatory footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Birds, state=collapsed Birds *Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...