From the World of Wings, Beak & Feather

- January 20, 2014

Birds are found on every continent of the world. Birds of different types can live in freezing cold environments, and others can live in hot deserts. Birds live in forests, in grasslands, on cliff faces, in river banks, on stony sea shores, down mine shafts and in the roofs of houses.Birds are a class of vertebrates & they live in the moment. All they do is revel in rushing air and vertical surfaces, trees that swoop up towards them, hot sun warming their hollow bones.. They feel the thrill of free flight and all that .They are warm-blooded and lay eggs. Birds are bipedal: they have two legs which are often covered with scales (small, flat plates which over-lap in the same way as feathers). They have a hard beak with no teeth. Their bodies are covered with feathers and they have wings. Feathers have three functions: flight, temperature regulation and display. Most birds have hollow main bones with air sacs in them. This makes them lighter and makes flight easier. birds keep a high body temperature, they use lots of energy. So, they need to eat a lot of food compared with their weight. Different types of birds eat different foods Most birds are carnivorous meaning that they eat flesh, at least some of the time. Many birds live on insects or on fish. Some eat small reptiles and mice. Birds of prey eat mammals and other birds. Some birds are scavengers and eat the bodies of creatures that have died. Many birds such as parrots and finches live on seeds and fruit. Some birds that eat mainly seeds feed their young on insects. A few types of birds eat green plants, but only one species lives on leaves. Hummingbirds and Honeyeaters live on the nectar or honey in flowers.Birds come in many sizes from the Bee Hummingbird that is only 60 mm long to the ostrich which stands 2.5 metres high. Some birds do not fly.
These include running birds like ostriches and emus and ocean-living birds, the large penguin family.
Once the birds have found partners, they find a suitable place to lay eggs. The idea of what is a suitable place differs between species, but most build bird nests. When the nest has been prepared, the birds mate so that the eggs are fertilised and the chicks will start growing. Unlike mammals, birds only have one opening as the exit hole for body fluids, and for reproduction. The opening is called the cloaca. A female bird, called a hen, has two ovaries, of which the left one usually produces eggs.Once the hen has mated, she produces fertile eggs which have chicks growing inside them. She lays the eggs in the nest. After the eggs are laid, they are incubated, or kept warm so the chicks form inside. Most birds stay together for the whole nesting season, and one advantage is that the work is shared. Many birds take turns sitting on the eggs, so that each adult can feed.
All birds make sounds to communicate. The types of noises that they make are different. All birds have cries which are the sounds to communicate. Some birds can also sing. These birds are called songbirds. Some songbirds are robins, larks, canaries, thrushes, nightingales and crows. Birds that are not songbirds are pigeons, seagulls, eagles, owls and ducks. Parrots are not songbirds, even though they can be taught to sing human songs.
Some birds are eaten as food. Most usually it is the chicken and its eggs, but people often also eat geese, pheasants, turkeys and ducks.

Here are few common birds those came in front of my eyes & I made no mistake to caught them through my lens to share with you.