There are many kinds of birds, which are distributed all over the world and have diverse ecology. Now birds can be divided into three major families. Flat-chested suborder includes a bird that is good at walking but can't fly, such as ostrich. Penguins include a class of birds that are good at swimming and diving but can't fly, such as penguins. The order Convex Chest includes birds with developed wings that can fly, and most birds belong to this order.
Most birds can fly, but a few flat-breasted birds can't, especially the birds living on the island, which have basically lost their ability to fly. Birds that can't fly include penguins, ostriches, kiwis (a wingless bird from New Zealand) and extinct dodos. When humans or other mammals invade their habitats, these flightless birds will be more likely to become extinct, such as the fear birds in great auk and New Zealand. There are many kinds of birds, second only to fish among vertebrates. At present, there are more than 9,000 known species of birds in the world, among which there are more than 1300 recorded in China alone, and many of them are endemic to China (see the list of endemic birds in China). About 120~ 130 species of birds have become extinct. Compared with other terrestrial vertebrates, birds have many unique physiological characteristics. These birds are quite different in size, shape, color and living habits. Among so many birds, the largest is the ostrich, which is the "giant" among birds. The African ostrich is 2.75 meters tall and weighs up to 165.5 kg. The smallest hummingbird in South America is only 50 mm long and weighs the same as a coin. Birds can fly, but not all birds can fly. For example, the ostrich's wings have degenerated, its sternum is small and flat, and there is no keel protrusion, so it can't fly. Penguins are specialized seabirds, whose wings have become fins and lost the ability to fly. Although some birds can fly, they don't fly very far. For example, a chicken has short wings and can't fly high, but it can fly at least tens of meters. However, domestic ducks have completely lost the ability to fly. Among the birds, the vulture flies the highest, which can fly over 9000 meters. The fastest flight is the goshawk, and the fastest speed of short-distance flight can reach more than 600 kilometers per hour. The longest flight distance is tern, which can fly from the South Pole to the far North Pole, with a journey of about 1.76 thousand kilometers. Birds have strong metabolism and digestion, so they eat more. Hummingbirds, for example, consume twice their body weight in a day. Some birds eat 10% ~ 30% of their body weight every day. Most birds are omnivorous and not very picky. Every spring and autumn, birds fly in groups in the sky, covering the sun. This seasonal phenomenon of changing habitats in different seasons, or moving from nesting sites to wintering sites, or returning from wintering sites to nesting sites is called bird migration. Every spring, birds begin a series of activities, such as courtship, reproduction, nesting, hatching and brooding.
Birds eat all kinds of food, including nectar, seeds, insects, fish, carrion or other birds. Most birds move during the day, and some birds (such as owls) move at night or at dusk. Many birds migrate long distances to find the best habitat (such as Arctic terns), and some birds spend most of their time at sea (such as albatrosses). Birds feed on beaks, which are generally long and narrow and have no teeth in their mouths.
The largest bird: The largest bird in the world is the African ostrich that lives in Africa and Arabia. He is 2-3 meters tall and weighs about 56 kilograms, with a maximum weight of 75 kilograms. But it can't fly. Its egg weight is about 1.5 kg and its length is about 17.8 cm, which is equal to the total weight of 30-40 eggs. It is the largest bird egg at present. Bird with the widest wingspan: wandering albatross, 3.63 meters.
The largest bird: Cory bird, which lives in southeast Africa, has a wing length of 2.56 meters and weighs about 18 kg, making it the heaviest bird in the world.
The heaviest bird: Great bustard, male weight 18kg.
The smallest raptor: Borneo Falcon, with a body length of 15cm and a weight of 35g. Birds with the most feathers: swans, more than 25,000. Birds with the least feathers: hummingbirds, less than 1000.
The bird with the longest feathers: Rhododendron paradise, whose tail feathers are more than twice as long.
Longest-lived bird: There are many long-lived birds. For example, the average life span of large seabird albatross is 50-60 years old, and large parrot can live to about 100 years old. There is an Amazon parrot named Jamie in Liverpool, England. Born in1870,65438+February 3rd, died in 1975,165438+1October 5th, at the age of 104. It is worthy of being the "longevity star" among birds. Wang Albatross, the longest-lived ringed seabird, lived for more than 60 years. The longest-lived caged bird: cockatoo sunflower, over 80 years old.
Fastest bird: Swift with a pointed tail usually flies at a speed of 170km/h, and the fastest can reach 352.5km/h, so it can be called the fastest bird.
The fastest sprinting bird: peregrine falcon, which can reach 180 km/h when diving to catch prey. The fastest bird flying horizontally: European eiderdown duck, 76 km/h.
The slowest bird: woodcock, 8 km/h. The bird with the highest flapping frequency: horned hummingbird, 90 times per second.
The slowest flapping bird: vultures glide for hours without flapping their wings.
The bird with the longest flight time: the golden pheasant of North America, flew for 35 hours at a speed of 90 km/h and crossed the sea surface of more than 2,000 km. The highest flying bird: Swan and alpine vulture are the highest flying birds. They can both fly over Mount Everest, the roof of the world, flying over 9000 meters, or they may hit a steep ice cliff and die.
The farthest bird: Arctic tern is the farthest bird. It is a medium-sized bird, used to living in the daytime, so it is called "daytime bird". When night falls in the Antarctic, it flies to the distant North Pole. Because the day and night in the North and South poles are just the opposite, and the North Pole is the day. Every June, he gave birth to a child in the North Pole. In August, he led the child to migrate to the south, flew over the earth, arrived near the South Pole in June+February, 5438, stayed until the beginning of March of the following year, and then went north again. Arctic terns travel back and forth between the poles every year, flying over 40 thousand kilometers. Because it always lives in a place where the sun never sets, people also call it a "daytime bird".
The fiercest bird: the vulture in the Andes, which lives between the cliffs of the Andes in South America, can reach 1.2 meters in length and spread its wings up to 3 meters. It has a strong and curved "iron mouth" and sharp claws, and specializes in eating live animals, not only small and medium-sized animals such as deer, sheep and rabbits, but also large mammals such as cougars, so it is also called "the bird that eats lions" and "the king of birds".
Bird with the longest tail feather: Japanese long-tailed chicken bred by artificial hybridization, the tail feather length is amazing, generally 6-7 meters, and the longest record is1one bred in 974, which is 12.5 meters. If it stands on a four-story balcony, its tail feather can be dragged to the bottom, so it is also the longest bird feather in the world.
Birds with the biggest difference between male and female weight: Great bustard living in the northern part of Eurasia has the biggest difference between male and female weight. The male body weight is 1 1 ~ 12 kg, while the female body weight is only 5 ~ 6 kg. Birds with the longest beak peak: Toucans living in South America are the birds with the longest beak peak, and its beak peak length is about 1 meter, which is very strange. Longest beak: Australian pelican, 47 cm long. The widest beak: the whalebone, with a width of 12 cm.
Bird who learned the most words: african grey parrot, who learned more than 800 words. The best bird to sing: wetland reed warbler, imitating more than 60 kinds of birds.
The most complex nest: the nest of the African weaver bird, which is also the largest male nest with more than 300 nests. The largest bird's nest: the vulture's nest, 6 meters long and 2.9 meters wide. The smallest nest: the hummingbird's nest, only the size of a thimble.
Birds that lay the fewest eggs: Albatrosses only lay one egg every year, which is the bird that lays the fewest eggs. Birds that lay the most eggs: grey partridge, with 15 ~ 19 birds per nest.
Birds with the longest incubation period: Albatrosses are also birds with the longest incubation period, which usually takes 75 ~ 82 days.
Birds with the latest sexual maturity: albatross chicks also have the longest sexual maturity process among birds, which takes 9 ~ 12 years.
The largest bird egg fossil:1Before the middle of the 7th century, there was an elephant bird in life in south, Madagascar, which is now extinct. The fossil egg of elephant bird is 35.6 cm long, which is equivalent to the size of 148 eggs. This is by far the largest bird egg fossil found in the world.
The largest bird fossil: The largest bird fossil is a dinosaur, estimated to be 5 meters high. It first lived in Madagascar and became extinct in the 7th century.
Now there are 902 1 species of birds in nature, and it is estimated that there are10 billion birds. Their eating habits are complex, their lifestyles are diverse, and they inhabit various ecological environments, which is an important factor to maintain the ecological balance of nature. As far as human interests are concerned, they are a group with great interests and little harm in the whole animal kingdom.
The most obvious benefit of birds is to eliminate pests. Most birds feed on insects, which are the natural enemies and nemesis of many pests in farmland and orchards. A white-faced chicken can peck 1800 caterpillars and eat 30 moths every day. European pink predators can also track locusts along the way. It has been calculated that 1000 purple-winged birds can kill 22 tons of locusts during the breeding period. There are thousands of kinds of insect-eating birds in nature, and the insects they prey on are very different, so its role in killing pests is really difficult to estimate.
Birds have made great achievements in eliminating harmful animals, especially owls, eagles and other raptors. Most of them feed on rodents such as mice, which has made important contributions to controlling the spread of rodents and dangerous diseases in agriculture and forestry. 99% of owl's food is rodents. One owl kills mice in summer, which is equivalent to protecting 1 ton of grain. Some birds that feed on plant seeds, especially geese and ducks, pigeons, woodpeckers and crows, are effective spreaders of plant seeds, and many plant seeds germinate more easily after passing through the digestive tract of birds. Hummingbirds, hummingbirds, sunbirds, woodpeckers, rust-eyed birds, parrots, etc. Being addicted to nectar has obvious effect on pollination of flowering plants.
Without these birds, the ecological balance of nature will be destroyed. It can be seen that the role of birds in nature is almost everywhere.
Birds have made indelible contributions in the field of bionics: the inventions of airplanes and navigators are inspired by birds. The survival of birds is threatened.
According to archaeological research, in the Cenozoic era 70 million years ago, there may have been 6.5438+0.6 million species of birds on the earth. Later, due to crustal changes and glacier movement, the number of birds decreased sharply. So far, there are only more than 9,000 species left on the earth, and their situation is also very worrying. With the large-scale exploitation of nature, it poses a great threat to the survival of birds. Forests are places where birds live, and destroying forests is equivalent to killing birds. However, at present, the forests on the earth are still decreasing at the rate of 1 1 10,000 hectares per year, which makes many birds lose their living environment. There used to be a large number of extinct American passenger pigeons in the early 20th century, which could cover the sky in the19th century. By the end of 19, the oak forest where American passenger pigeons lived was seriously damaged, and as a result, this bird soon became extinct. According to the survey data of the former West Germany, in the past 50 years, 73 species of birds and other animals have become extinct, 180 species of birds have died in large numbers, and some are on the verge of extinction.
The beach on the river bank and the pond on the branch of the lake are good habitats and breeding grounds for many kinds of birds. Inappropriate land reclamation around the lake has destroyed the living environment of wading birds and swimming birds. The disappearance of wetlands has caused many waterfowl to lose their habitats. Environmental pollution and man-made killing have also done great harm to birds. Protecting birds is human knowledge.
The decline of birds will ultimately hurt human beings themselves. In order to change the situation that birds are decreasing day by day and many rare birds are on the verge of extinction, many countries in the world have taken corresponding measures, formulated laws and regulations, and concluded more than 40 international agreements and conventions for the protection of birds, such as the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat and the Convention on the Protection of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Many academic organizations have been established, such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) headquartered in Switzerland, the International Waterfowl Research Bureau (IWRB) headquartered in Britain, the International Council for the Protection of Birds (ICBP), and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) headquartered in the United States.
In order to publicize and care for birds, many countries choose symbolic birds as "national birds". For example: USA-Vulture Japan-Green Pheasant India-Blue Peacock Myanmar-Peacock Iraq-Eagle Philippines-Philippine Eagle Germany-Stork Netherlands-Egret Denmark-Lark, White Swan Norway-River Bird Sweden-Ukrainian Bird Iceland-White Falcon Austria-Swallow
At present, the bird nature reserves established in China are:
1987 Heilongjiang Zhalong Red-crowned Crane Reserve (42,000 hectares); Bird Island Nature Reserve in Qinghai Lake (53,550 hectares) established by 1975; Heilongjiang Longbaotan Black-necked Crane Reserve (654.38+100000 hectares) established by 1984; 1980 Xinjiang Bayinbuluke Swan Reserve (6,543,800 hectares); 1984, Jiangxi Poyang Lake wintering migratory bird reserve (22,400 hectares);
1In July, 983, the first bird ecological protection zone was established in Guandu, Zhongxing Bridge and Huajiangqiao sections at the junction of Taipei City and Taipei County. There are more than 170 species of protected birds in the nature reserve, accounting for 42% of the total number of existing birds in Taiwan Province Province.
Birds are so important and lovely. People who love birds like us should take practical actions to protect birds, not to hurt them and not to appreciate wild birds.