Portal:Birds
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Welcome to the Birds Portal! Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, oviparous vertebrate animals. Most scientists believe that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Ranging in size from tiny hummingbirds to the huge ostrich and emu, there are between 9,000 and 10,000 known living bird species in the world, making Aves the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrate.
A bird is characterized by feathers, a toothless beak, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a light but strong skeleton. All birds have forelimbs modified as wings and most can fly. Birds are important sources of food, acquired either through farming or hunting. Numerous species of birds are also used commercially, and some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular pets. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry and popular music. Numerous species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities and as a result efforts are underway to protect them. Template:/box-footer Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. .jpg) The moult of their flight feathers can cause serious problems for birds, as it can impair their ability to fly. Different species have evolved different strategies for coping with this, ranging from dropping all their flight feathers at once (and thus becoming flightless for some relatively short period of time) to extending the moult over a period of several years. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.  Calliope hummingbirds (Selasphorus calliope) female feeding two chicks. Anatomy: Anatomy • Skeleton • Flight • Eggs • Feathers • Plumage Evolution and extinction: Evolution • Archaeopteryx • Hybridisation • Late Quaternary prehistoric birds • Fossils • Taxonomy • Extinction Behaviour: Singing • Intelligence • Migration • Reproduction • Nesting • Incubation • Brood parasites Bird orders: Struthioniformes • Tinamiformes • Anseriformes • Accipitriformes • Galliformes • Gaviiformes • Podicipediformes • Procellariiformes • Sphenisciformes • Pelecaniformes • Ciconiiformes • Phoenicopteriformes • Falconiformes • Gruiformes • Charadriiformes • Pteroclidiformes • Columbiformes • Psittaciformes • Cuculiformes • Strigiformes • Caprimulgiformes • Apodiformes • Coraciiformes • Piciformes • Trogoniformes • Coliiformes • Passeriformes Bird lists: Families and orders • Lists by region Birds and humans: Ringing • Ornithology • Bird collections • Birdwatching • Birdfeeding • Conservation • Aviculture Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
Template:/box-header Free online resources:
There is also Birds of North America, Cornell University's massive project collecting information on every breeding bird in the ABA area. It is available for US$40 a year. For more sources, including printed sources, see WikiProject Birds. Template:/box-footer Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.  Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found.
Every month a different bird-related topic, article, stub or non-existent article is picked. Please improve the article any way you can. Template:/box-header Create requested articles (WikiProject Birds – Article requests): Do these tasks:
More outstanding tasks at the cleanup listing on Labs, Category:Birds articles needing attention, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds#Tasklist.
The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject:
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